


Lapis Lazuli

by zeerogue



Category: SHINee
Genre: 2min - Freeform, Pirate AU, it's not dubious consent but it's a side pairing so fair warning, jongkey - Freeform, jongkey is consented, taeminho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-14
Packaged: 2018-10-31 15:32:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 71,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10902225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeerogue/pseuds/zeerogue
Summary: Kim Jonghyun, thief extraordinaire, runs into a bit of trouble when he tries to steal the recent loot off from the notorious pirate ship the Locket. Now deemed the captain's slave dog to repent, he must help the Almighty Captain Key find the treasure of a well known deceased pirate: Blue Heavens in the Red.





	1. “The adversary of your future is your past.”

**_Lapis Lazuli_ **

 

**Chapter 1**

**“The adversary of your future is your past.”**

 

 

Unearthly blue skies greet the reapers of the water every morning when they bring in those large wooden structures floating on that mirror they call the sea. They are magicians in their own right, playing tricks for gold. Perhaps a magician would be a far more honorable occupation. The only magic they know is how to float with the wind, controlling it with large sheets of off white and black, and the magic known as death. There is one ship among them all that has traveled more than the East Sea. The wind catchers are dyed red by their mastery of death, and though holes litter the dark washed wood like scars from run ins with the law and creatures of myth, it still stays afloat by some  magic of its own. Not even the fearful captain of the ship knows the secret of this mystery. And if he did, he has taken it to his grave.

 

 He is simply known as Captain of the Fading Red Sails. He has no fancy name; had he one, it has been long forgotten as only the ship stays of importance now and his multitude of buried treasure. It was as his ship made port on East Pirate Island one summer morning eight years prior that the news of his death came. Steering his ship was his first mate, gray bearded and free hand crippled by age, but he held strong with his right. Captain’s first mate did not have the same vulgarity that made the red sail ship its legend, but he had enough to continue it – the trust of the crew the Captain left behind and the gentleness of a mother that many of boys had never knew. The first mate docked the ship and walked off with the Captain’s eye patch and made his way to the house of the pirate whores, those curvy luscious women that just as easily gave themselves to the lot of crooked sea ridden men as those men fell into their soft sweet smelling bodies. They waited almost like wives for the pirates to dock. Unlike wives though, they had many men to greet. And children, so many children, and for which whore bore them did not matter, they knew their father with only seeing their haggard face, children born to ride the sea or to ride a seaman. To this house the first mate went and presented to the head whore the eye patch.

 

 Like wives and sisters and mothers, they cried. Like brothers and sons all pirates bowed their head whether Captain had been a rival or a friend of their ship not a factor. A time of mourning for all and then a night of celebration for his life for forty years spent on the sea was more than any of them could hope for. For one, though, mourning was a celebration. The Captain was dead and he well knew the abilities of the first mate. He was a young boy of fourteen, favorited among the pirates for his pretty build. He did not want to be like his mother, he did not want to be a rider of seamen but of the sea. He had christened himself the lover of the sea and so he planned and planned to take the first ship he could when the sun of his fourteenth birthday rose. And lo and behold the ship with red sails made dock with only the crippled first man to captain it. Mutiny, he could see the signs of it on the first mate’s arms and the fewer crew men that came back than left littered around him. Thrown overboard every man that thought he was stronger than the old sea whore turned first mate of Captain’s ship.

 

 The boy waited through the night and early morning. He wanted the first mate free of hangover and ready to leave. Trips to the island only last one day unless major repairs were needed, too risky in case the navy passed by. With women clinging to him, the first mate walked out of the whorehouse, kissed the head whore goodbye, her hands still clutching Captain’s eye patch, and made his way for the ship with red sails. The boy walked out from behind the whorehouse dressed cleanly in a pirate’s white shirt and breeches, both barely fitting his thinning adolescent frame. His sword dragged on the ground from its place hooked to his hip by a red sash, but he walked with determination, long strides and eyes focused on the first mate.

 

 The first mate laughed upon seeing the boy. He remembered him well and recalled his age, just old enough to join the ship. His body was fair and he could do wonders for the men still left after Captain’s death to fill their empty hearts with passion again, passion for the sea and the ship. A beautiful mascot for the ship crew to worship. If only he had not promised Captain that this boy could not set foot on the ship. He was much more needed here among the whore, no use in taking him for one ship when he could be the mascot of all pirates of the East.

 

The boy stopped only meters away from him and called out. Sir, sir, stop and listen for a moment, listen to my words. You are the new captain of that ship, the one with the red flags. I am of the mind that you do not have the right to steer it. I believe a boy could steer it better.

 

The first mate was astonished by the boy’s words. How could a boy barely at the end of puberty question his right to man the ship with red sails. Captain had picked him specifically. He had given him all from a young age to get where he was, to man a ship of his own and a mere boy, though favored indeed, special among all the children, wished to say he did not deserve it. How ridiculous, how terribly stupid! And who would be right to man the ship, he was the best sword fighter even with one hand crippled he had done most of the shepherding when the short lasted mutiny came only hours after Captain’s death.

 

Of course the boy had a response to that. If the first mate was so good than he could easily when against a boy. I will take your ship and crew if I beat you and you can stay here and retire with your Captain and the whores.

 

Did the boy wish for his death. The first mate could not fathom another reason for picking a fight with the second in charge of this ship. How could he let something so beautiful die before it had given back to the community that made it. A small trifle of a fight with him and once he was scared, he would let the boy go.

 

You’ve agreed then, no backing out. If I win I get the ship and the crew, or the ship and my own crew. You won’t be allowed to take those words back, you’ve said them in front of the whores of this island, your mothers and sisters and lovers.

 

The first mate promised and jumped when a thin blade was pressed to his chest. His eyes moved down the weapon, examined the boy’s stance – legs spread slightly unevenly, a strange stance, not one that was taught, but confident – and moved up his straight torso and set shoulders. The boy’s eyes though, his eyes were dark; the color of the water at night, calm but promising all the dangers that lurked in the darkened sea. Really, what a waste.

 

Don’t be too confident, the boy said, I could have killed you just now. A serious fight was what he wanted, needed, to command a ship. He knew the first mate was good, not as good as Captain, but then the boy wasn’t confident enough to challenge Captain. He also knew all of the first mate’s moves and that gave him an advantage – knowledge. The first mate had a legacy; the boy was a new book.

 

The first mate stepped back and pulled out his own sword crossing it with the boy’s. When the metal of their swords clinked, the boy didn’t bother stepping back and sizing up his opponent, he’d been sizing him up since young; the boy turned to the side and pushed his sword toward the first mate’s face. Only hair, a lock of his beard, was touched. It was enough though to get the crowd cat calling the veteran pirate. The first mate swung at the boy then jabbed his sword. Light feet let the boy jump away and he moved around the first mate letting his sword slide against the first mate’s shirt, leaving a tear but no blood. When the first mate whirled around, the boy moved again and let his sword slide across the pirate’s leg instead, a small cut, just enough to sting. He was playing, of course he was. He had some respect for the first mate, enough not to kill him with one blow which he could do when the first mate was still underestimating his abilities. Let him get closer to a chance, he had definitely never seen a swordsman like the boy before.

 

The first mate’s sword whirled at the boy again. He moved, but the tip laid prize for a split second under his left eye. The boy jumped back and held a hand to the cut, pulling it back to see small trickles of blood on his finger tips. He gritted his teeth and held his sword with both hands charging at the first mate. Anger never helped when fighting, anger and bloodthirst was what fueled pirate’s, but just for a moment, the boy forgot about that and moved in on the first mate. Their swords clashed over and over. The first mate grinned at the boy. He was just an overconfident brat trying to be something he wasn’t intended for. He’d learn his place and the first mate would be the first one to teach him, the first one to defile that face. Except, the boy’s face was blank, he couldn’t even see anger in it anymore, slowly it was seceding and the clash of their swords sounded in a rhythm, music. The first mate pulled back.

 

 Stop playing, the first mate said.

 

Take me seriously then, kill me or die or I’ll continue to play, the boy said and smiled, smiled like the sharks that chased after the ship when waste and captives were thrown overboard.

 

 Killing a virgin would be less of a sin than dying by one’s hand. The first mate could only sigh and jab his sword toward the boy. The boy side stepped it and their dance of swords began again. There was no special moment when it ended, no miraculous move to finish him off, the first mate just slid his sword along the boy’s side and slumped forward into his arms. There was silence on the beach until one whore began to weep, cries soft then louder as the realization moved through the crowd. Was he really dead? The boy shuttered then closed his eyes and thrust his sword farther up, through the first mate’s body. He pulled it back out and stepped aside letting the pirate’s body fall to the ground soaking the dirt mixed sand.

 

The first mate was dead only weeks after Captain, and by his own decree a boy was to take his place, pirate the ship with fading red sails. The boy breath hard staring down at the dead old man, his first kill, then looked up at the crew. Many of them drew their swords and the boy only smiled again and held his stance. He was their captain now, this was mutiny and they’d all die by his assassin sword.

 

**@};----------------------------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Was there ever really a reason to chase someone in town square? The streets were always crowded with people and carriages and vendors. It wasn’t like someone could get far once in the throng of sellers and buyers. Okay, maybe it was a good place to hide, you could really get lost in all the people, and yeah, that was why Jonghyun had ran this way, but really, if they knew that, why were they still chasing him. It wasn’t like they were police and people would just move out of their way because that was the law or help them in hopes of an award because they obviously all knew who was being chased when Jonghyun was running through them pushing men, women, horses, out of the way and screaming at the top of his lungs. Actually, taking a look back, people were moving out of the way of his chasers anyways. Of course, when a few dozen Chinese men with swords were roaring toward you you’d get out of their way quick and let them catch the idiot they were chasing.

 

Yeah, Jonghyun admitted, he was an idiot. What was he thinking trying to steal from the biggest Chinese drug lords taking refuge on this small ungoverned island? He wasn’t thinking, he never really thought when it came to stealing, he just did it. Well, maybe he did come up with a plan first, but the consequences and danger was what he didn’t think about. He did think about how he was going to get past all the guards and down into the drug lords fault. He did think about how he was going to buy a nice ring afterwards, the one Baekhyun had been eyeing in the jewelers across the candle shop. He did think about how he’d finally be able to slide inside that tight bottom after months of working his charm.

 

Okay, he thought, he just thought with his penis and not his brain.

 

Jonghyun turned a corner and glanced back at the dozen angry men coming after him. He grimaced and dug into his vest pocket to pull out the small amount of gold he had gotten only to find it empty of all but three coins. It wasn’t even half enough for that ring. Why did Baekhyun have to have such expensive tastes, one night really wasn’t worth almost getting his head chopped off.

 

He took a breath ready to continue running down the much emptier road he had turned on when he heard the sound of feet skittering to a stop behind him. Lots of feet. Dozens of feet. Great.

 

“You dare steal from us?” said the leader, a tall blonde Chinese. Great, blonde, that meant he was a wizard. Jonghyun didn’t like dealing with wizards. He’d had a wizard once, cursed him for three months with a bad infestation of lice when he woke up naked beside Jonghyun in a haystack behind the bar they’d met in. Jonghyun’s head still itched remembering it.

 

“I didn’t steal a thing, mate. Check me, all I have are three coins,” Jonghyun said and held out the three gold coins.

 

The leader cocked his head toward Jonghyun and he shrunk back a little. Why were his lackeys tall, too? Jonghyun didn’t appreciate people taller than him; being a thief, you had to be on the shorter side, not a midget, though they were useful, just small enough not to be noticed. Jonghyun liked being noticed though, except when he was trying to get away, then he would very much like to be a midget.

 

“Come on guys, do you really have to do this?” Jonghyun asked as he was pushed against a wall of one of the shops. He glanced up and down the street. The few people that had been on it had skittered away and he could just catch a glimpse of the shop owner closing his curtains. Helpful much.

 

They’re hands patted up and down Jonghyun’s body and slithered beneath his clothes. Were they having a little too much fun feeling him up or was that just him? Jonghyun guessed it was just him, not everyone that worked dishonorable hours had his same inclinations. One of the lackeys pulled something out of his vest pocket, a silver chain with a talisman on it. The leader took it to examine and Jonghyun groaned.

 

“A Talisman from the Kurogawa-Lee section? So you’re the one that stole that barrel of charms from the Japanese last week? Quite impressive,” the leader said with a grin.

 

Jonghyun rolled his eyes. “It was supposed to be a barell of paper money. Who puts charms in a barell?”

 

“Charms are money to them,” the leader said then moved to put the charm back in Jonghyun’s vest pocket. “But we won’t tell them, I don’t want to start a fight with the Japanese over killing someone that wronged them first.”

 

“Thanks for not telling them, but could we maybe skip the killing part? I’m still young.”

 

The leader shook his head and motioned for the lackeys to follow him. Jonghyun struggled. There really wasn’t a point to struggling, but it was expected, and if he wanted to get away he had to make it look like he didn’t have the brain that had gotten that barell of charms out of the shrine at the Japanese drug lord’s house, or that huge clay unicorn statue from the South Easterners in broad daylight. Too bad the statue had broken before he could sell it, but he had made profit off the charms.

 

“Come on guys, cut me some slack it’s my first offense against you. I only got three coins off you, you can have them back. Three coins, that’s only enough for bread these days.” Three months worth of bread, but bread all the same.

 

“You did more than steal coins, you knocked out half my housing guard and you also broke an expensive vase that I will remind you is the reason you got caught in the first place.”

 

Right, he’d forgotten about the vase, the guards weren’t a big deal. Jonghyun sighed and took a deep breath before making his eyes big and pouting. “Yifan, right? Come on, look at me, I’m as innocent as a puppy; it was definitely some other guy that knocked out those fifteen guards and your vase. Yifan~.”

 

The leader turned around and his eyes widened seeing Jonghyun’s face and twitched in disgust. He lifted a leather gloved hand that sparked with energy and Jonghyun whimpered.

 

“Say my name like that again and I’ll spell you,” the leader threatened.

 

Right, wizard, Jonghyun didn’t like wizards. He made a locking motion with his hand towards his mouth and then grinned.

 

They started again, coming onto the back walk of the beach. Then there was a scream and they stopped. Jonghyun tried to see around the leader and lackeys in front of him and cursed them for being so tall. They parted finally, making two rows on the sides of the walkway. Jonghyun only got a second to see who they were letting past before he was moved to the side as well. Men wearing tattered jackets and carrying long swords, men with beards and smelling of the sea – pirates; the drug lord bowed to them as they walked past, one with a scared woman tucked to his side, the source of the scream. Jonghyun bowed, too, knowing the respect between the drug lords and the pirates, the truce they had over traveling the sea with illegal goods. Civilians were party to their whims and Jonghyun didn’t want to end up like the girl, well the screaming part, it was unlikely he’d end up alive like she would. It wasn’t until they had past that Jonghyun realized the lackey’s had let go of him in order to bow properly. A second before they stood back up, he was running.

 

It wasn’t everyday you could say a pirate saved your life.

 

**@};----------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

It also wasn’t everyday you could see such grand ships.

 

Jonghyun made his way down to the beach thinking it safer to be close to the pirate ships while Yifan and his men were still looking for him. He walked among hopeful boys waiting to be whisked off on one of the ships that occasionally docked on their forgotten island of the wayward and abandoned. The younger pirates eyed him, left to protect the ship while the veterans went and played in the pubs and women. They didn’t get much alcohol here and there were even less women, none of them pirate whores, just whores that much preferred the touch of the rich con men that housed themselves in the mansions of the island than fish smelling men. Now that he thought about it, Jonghyun figured he probably should have tried to save that girl before. She didn’t look like a whore. Baekhyun didn’t look like a whore either, then again, for a guy, having a reputation of a line of lovers as long as the candle maker’s didn’t really constitute you as a whore, just good.

 

But indeed the ships were grand. There were three, two small ships that looked commandeered, probably owned by the large ship between them, a dark washed ship with sails that looked…pink? Maybe they were supposed to be red, faded by the intense light of the rising sun. He imagined they planned to sale them off. To drug lords? They were usually in need of ships, small ones that looked like royal cargo ships like these. Maybe one would go to Yifan and the other to the Japanese.

 

Jonghyun waved to the pirate boys, grinning, looking over a few clean shaven ones that stood tall. Ship-whores, they made him shiver with wonder and disgust. He took a seat on one of the posts on the dock and watched the main ship. There were boxes littered around it, seemed as if they were cleaning out the lower storage decks. He reached inside his vest pocket and pulled out the talisman he had kept from the barrel he stole last week. There were letters written on it, but he actually didn’t know what it said, he had never learned more than a few speaking phrases that helped knock out some of the guards, but he felt it said something meaningful, something he probably needed in his life, and the green floral pattern was attractive, too.

 

 He looked back at the scattered pirate loot…loot, or food, previsions. Food or gold, it didn’t matter, he was low on both. Jonghyun looked toward the young pirates in charge of watching the ship. They had gotten bored of staring at him and were messing with the ship-whores. He glanced back and caught a few of his thief friends going through the garbage of the food houses close to the port. They must have seen it too; usually he wasn’t the first to go after something this obvious. Distracted pirates and loot spread around, yes, he did believe he would have a go at stealing from a pirate ship.

 

Jonghyun looked around him, watching to make sure no one was paying attention to him. It was times like these when he was again thankful for his average height. He moved as if not worried, as if it was okay for him to walk amongst the boxes and crates and, oh, was that a chest? He moved through them until he made his way inside the ship where... he was wrong, they weren’t emptying the ship, but filling it. His eyes gleamed with glee at the half heartily closed chest spilling over with gold and jewels, three of them surrounded by boxes and boxes of food and barrels of water and wine. He clapped his hands and dug in his pant pocket for the small money bag that contained the three coins from the Chinese drug lords. This was where he needed to be quick. It wasn’t a planned out operation, just a quick fix for his money bag, fill it and stuff it down his pants then get out of their fast, he just needed enough to buy that ring and a night at a hotel (along with a months supply of food because he’d have to go into hiding after stealing from pirates.) Jonghyun kneeled before the smallest chest and unbound the leather straps, opening it. He almost moaned at the piles of gold he was met with and tried to be as quiet as he could picking up a few pieces here and there and laying them softly in his bag until it was halfway full. That was good, no need to be greedy, so he stood up and turned listening for the sounds of feet. Nothing, good, just hooting from the boy pirates on the pier. Probably one of them had finally got a hand down one of the ship-whore’s pants.

 

“Kids these days,” Jonghyun chuckled and opened the waist band of his pants to drop the bag inside then untucked his shirt to cover the bulge it made in the front of his pants. He patted it down before making his way out of the ship, peeking around the empty boxes that had been thrown out to make room for the new ones before he was in the clear and started to walk normally. He had just successfully stolen from a pirate ship, it was thrilling really. Jonghyun liked stealing small things from the big guys. Okay, maybe a clay unicorn and a barrel of talisman charms weren’t small, but it wasn’t like he stole a whole jewel vault. So, maybe he didn’t get a little too excited a little too soon and started skipping as he past some pirates on their way back to the ship. And maybe his pants made a jiggling sound that was much too loud for a small coin purse. And, okay, he’d taken a ruby or two as well and they made a much different clicking sound than gold did, but was that really a reason for there to be a sword poking at the seam between his butt cheeks?

 

“Turn around,” a gruff voice commanded.

 

Jonghyun sighed and did so only to see two older pirates, beards nicely growing, standing in front of him. The shorter of the two was the one holding his sword out, now grazing his crotch where the edges of his shirt barely covered the bulge the coin bag made.

 

“What’s this, doing a little funny business around our ship, eh? You touch our boys? You know what happens when you touch a pirate’s things,” the shorter pirate said.

 

Jonghyun shook his head and raised his hands out in front of him. “Didn’t touch them, I swear by whatever it is you guys swear by.”

 

The taller pirate frowned. “You can get punished just by getting excited over our boys, too.”

 

Jonghyun laughed. “It wasn’t your boys, I was thinking about my girl. Should head back home and have here take care of this, yeah?”

 

The shorter pirate poked his sword tip into Jonghyun’s crotch and he jumped a bit making the bag jingle. The pirates laughed and the shorter lowered his sword.

 

“Yeah, she’d take care of this alright; buy herself all the pretty little nice things.”

 

You know, Jonghyun didn’t get caught quite this often.

 

The pirates came around and grabbed Jonghyun’s arms and began leading him to an alley between two of the food shops on the harbor. Jonghyun almost rather have had the Chinese kill him if he was destined to die today at least then they’d have to deal with the Japanese and that would start a war between the two, but then he remembered their leader was a witch and Jonghyun didn’t like witches. Yes, a bloody death by pirates would be better.

 

His pants jingled as he walked. No, now it wouldn’t he at least deserved a kiss, maybe a blow job, from the candle maker. He had gone threw all of this just for a stupid ring to put on his stupid ridiculously pretty fingers, fingers that he heard could do wonders for what was in his pants. Not the gold, though he was sure Baekhyun could to wonders with that as well.

 

He really didn’t want to die. He’d given up too much to die so young.

 

“Parlay!” Jonghyun croaked out.

 

 


	2. “Good fortune for one means lost fortune for another as that is the balance of the world.”

**Chapter 2**

 

**“Good fortune for one means lost fortune for another as that is the balance of the world.”**

 

Jonghyun could only be grateful for the time he and an older thief had come up with a scheme to steal the gold bear statues that decorated the fence posts of the Russian drug lord’s mansion in the center of town. There hadn’t been many guards probably because they thought no one would be stupid enough to steal them especially in the middle of the day, but Jonghyun knew that. Who would steal something under such and such circumstances? That was the question they always asked when putting up gold bears or clay unicorns, barrels full of charms – money, gold coins, well those were always stolen, that wasn’t weird – and Jonghyun was the answer to that. He was the one that would steal when you least expected it.  

 

He almost always got away with it, too.

 

It just wasn’t his lucky day.

 

But, Jonghyun was grateful for that experience. Jonghyun was still new so of course he was the one that tripped the wire, but he was also faster even with more than half the golden bears strapped to various parts of his body. He had hidden behind one of the trees in the small wood area that surrounded the Russians’ mansion and watched as the lackeys buried down on his partner in crime. The older thief had begged and begged for them not to hurt him. He wanted to talk to the leader and get it all sorted out. Parlay, he said, parlay parlay. The Russian lackeys only laughed and said that was what you said to pirates not to drug lords. Then they bashed his head in with the butts of their guns. Jonghyun tried not to remember that part, blood wasn’t really his thing, but words were.

 

Parlay. What did that even mean exactly?

 

The pirates sheathed their swords wearing frowns on their faces and grabbed him by the arms. Jonghyun’s arms were sore already from being dragged like that by Yifan’s lackeys, he couldn’t understand why this was the customary was of dragging off a captive or whatever he was.  Did parlay make him a captive and they just couldn’t kill him? He really wished he had looked up the meaning of the word and not just stored it in his brain to be forgotten and brought up when he thought it was a good idea to use. They dragged him toward their ship, other pirates now starting toward it as well. The sun was setting so Jonghyun guessed they were heading back to set sail by night. Why you would undock a ship when it was getting dark and not the next morning was beside Jonghyun just as why you would have pink sails. Maybe it was just a quirk of this captain; that he liked traveling by the North Star.

 

The other pirates paused in their work or walking to stare at Jonghyun as he was dragged past with steely dark eyes. He grinned at them trying not to be unnerved by their stained beards and scarred faces. He’d never had much of a thing for scars; he liked pretty unblemished boys who were good with their hands. Like Baekhyun, Baekhyun had pretty hands, cuticles sometimes covered in wax, but that was okay because Jonghyun found it fun to peel off. Too bad he hadn’t gotten to peel off wax from other places of Baekhyun’s body, and he probably wouldn’t now if ‘Parlay’ didn’t end up being some kind of get out of jail free card with pirates. (Jonghyun had seen one before, the drug lords sold them for a pretty penny to the citizens.) They took Jonghyun up the ramp to the deck of the ship where shrouds were being pulled and tug lines tightened. There was even a young boy swabbing the deck, hips swaying as a group of burly men pretended to be busy, ogling him.

 

They stopped in the center of the deck faced towards the captain’s cabin that blocked the light from the setting sun. Jonghyun let out a sigh as he waited arms already numb, for the captain to come out. At least, he figured that’s who they were waiting for to sentence him or set him free whatever Parlay meant.

 

“Captain,” one of the pirates called, “we got a scavenging pup here for you to play with.”

 

“You shouldn’t call the captain out right now,” said a man in a white apron boarding the ship. “He was sleeping.”

 

“He gets enough beauty rest,” the other pirate said and they both laughed then froze eyes wide with fear.

 

Jonghyun looked behind him, freezing up as well seeing a tall dark haired man standing behind them with two swords drawn and poking at the pirate’s backs.

 

“You two like your captain pretty don’t you?” the man asked no smile on his face just intense large eyes. “I’d keep it down then and not worry him with petty thieves. You know what to do with them.”

 

“He said Parl-A-ah-y, Minho  sir,” one of the pirates holding Jonghyun croaked out.

 

The Minho  guy looked between the two pirates then at Jonghyun who quickly looked away before sheathing his swords. He walked around them and headed for the captain’s cabin. The pirates holding him still hadn’t unstiffened and Jonghyun wiggled a bit to see if he could get free, but their arms had stiffen too and where squeezing his, not that he could feel that. He hated the tingly feeling you got when your limbs fell asleep.

 

A few minutes later, the captain’s cabin door opened and the Minho  guy walked out and stepped to the side. Jonghyun watched the opened door feeling the air of the ship quiet as a long leather boot clad leg stepped out then another and a body. Jonghyun’s eyes traveled up the leather boots, white breeches, too white for ship clothing, gold threaded vest with a tail coat just as white, and then to high cheekbones and cat like eyes holding a gaze as dangerous as a black ocean, framed in equally black hair. Oh, Jonghyun thought, wasn’t the captain supposed to come out not his ship whore. He looked around the man who started to approach them, heels of tall leather boots clicking against the deck floor. Where was the captain?  

 

It wasn’t until he felt himself jerked forward, bowing to the man, that Jonghyun realized this pretty crisply dressed man _was_ the captain of this ship with it’s pink sails. Everyone bowed to him, young and beautiful and ridiculous. It was ridiculous.

 

When the pirates stood back up bringing Jonghyun with them he stared into the captain’s eyes with his own wide brown ones and said, voice cracking, “ _You’re_ the captain!”

 

That black ocean gaze ready to swallow him up only seconds before stared blankly at Jonghyun before swirling and Jonghyun’s heart clenched in fear that maybe his mouth was too big and talking to a pirate captain wasn’t the same as a drug lord, but then there was a laugh. It was a high pitched laugh, slightly cackle-like at the ends, like the song of some sea bird. The captain’s laugh.

 

“Oh goodness, what kind of day is it to be woken up by a curious puppy? My, you seem like such an innocent thing,” the captain said and reached out, pinching one of Jonghyun’s cheek. “Certainly you must have done something awful, but _who says that_ to a pirate captain!” Said pirate captain moved his hand to his chest instead and laughed more.

 

“Key, the matter at hand, please,” that Minho  guy said coming and placing a hand on the small of the captain’s back.

 

The captain straightened up and wiped his eyes. Jonghyun didn’t think he was funny enough to make the captain cry, but if he was in a good mood because of him less punishment, right?

 

“So I heard you pleaded Parlay,” the captain said.

 

Jonghyun chose to nod this time. He had made the captain laugh once didn’t need to test his luck, he didn’t seem to have much of that today.

 

 “Alright, what was his crime then?” the captain said and turned to the two pirates still holding him.

 

“Thievery Captain,” the taller one said.

 

“And what did he steal?”

 

The shorter chuckled and Jonghyun could feel eyes travel down to his crotch. “Check his pants, Captain.”

 

Jonghyun watched the captain raise a finely sculpted brow before looking at his crotch as well. “Well, well, what do we have here?” The captain reached out toward him and pulled on the band of Jonghyun’s pants looking down them then back up at Jonghyun with a smirk. “Keep it down boy, I’m just getting the bag.”

 

He was embarrassed. It was weird to get embarrassed with all the experience he’d had but it wasn’t everyday a pretty captain made a joke about you being hard because he was looking down your pants for a bag of gold you stuffed down there. Then he reached inside and Jonghyun yelped. Fingers slid along his member and he swore he saw the edges of the captain’s mouth lift up whether in disgust or amusement he wasn’t sure but then the bag of gold was out and the coins were tipped out to scatter across the deck floor.

 

“Fifty-two,” the captain said his eyes back to ocean black. “Where you trying to buy a deck of cards with these. Oh, and a few jewels, too. You should have been killed when they caught you, but you’ve got to be the smartest idiot thief I ever had the pleasure to be robbed by pleading Parlay. One week for every coin and a month for every jewel, that’s a year and five months Mr. Thief.”

 

The captain turned on his heals, but stopped when Jonghyun asked, “A year and five months of what?” He instead walked over to the young boy that had been swabbing the deck and took his mop coming back to Jonghyun. He pressed the wood handle of the mop into Jonghyun’s chest and grinned. “A year and a half of being my personal slave. Now, you can start buy swabbing the deck.”

 

**@};----------------------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

They set sail and night fell over the ship. Jonghyun was drenched before he made it to the last room to be swabbed. The captain had told him to clean every inch of the ship and he had done so, some floors multiple times as the other pirates thought it would be funny to throw fish bones or waste onto the boards. The younger pirates and ship whores that it would be funny to make him spill the dirty water all over himself and he both felt sticky with dirty water and sweat and tired. Jonghyun had to get this last room, though and lifted his hand to knock on the Captain’s cabin door.

 

 “Come in,” said a deep voice and Jonghyun entered.

 

The captain’s cabin was smaller than he would have thought. A decent looking bed was stuffed into a corner of the room about the same size as all the other beds he had seen on the ship.  There was a closet close to the bed, swords poking out of a half closed door and from the other door, opened, he could see piles of neatly folded outfits. What looked like a wash bin sat beside it with clothes soaking inside. The walls were full of shelves with more clothes and books and maps then there was a table in the middle where the captain and the Minho  guy sat with a map and documents spread out in front of them.

 

 The captain looked up when Jonghyun entered, an eyebrow raised. “May I help you?”

 

Jonghyun raised the tip of his mop and shook it a bit. “This is the last room, you said to get them all, right?”

               

The captain waved him off and went back to talking with the Minho  guy who Jonghyun assumed was the first mate and second in command by the way the other pirates reacted to him when he walked about the deck. They all stopped and greeted or lowered their heads a bit more. It was almost unnerving considering both the Minho  guy and the captain didn’t look older than Jonghyun. How did two people so young become leaders on a pirate ship?

 

Jonghyun moved toward the bed so that he could work his way to the door and started to mop. He could feel eyes on him as he worked, but after a few minutes they looked away. He peeked over to see the Minho  guy  drawing something on the map and the captain sat back in his chair watching, arms crossed on his chest and knees crossed together. Jonghyun thought it was an odd way to sit for a pirate captain, but everything about this captain seemed a little odd from the pink sails he used on his ship to the way his mouth quirked in a sort of bemused disgust when he accidentally touched Jonghyun. Jonghyun shifted and tried not to think about that afternoon’s incident.

 

 “As you see, this is the best route to get to Jeju without coming across the kingdom’s navy fleet,” the Minho  guy said.

 

Jonghyun could hear the captain shuffle his feet in thought. “That route’s too short, we’ll get their too early.”

 

 “The scouting boat we asked to be set out said this is the area that has no guards and any particular time frame. It’s cutting it close as it is. Key, I know you wanted to raid the Jeju kingdom when the sun was rising, but this will get us there an hour or two before. I think that’s when the guards will be the least ready for us. Half of the night guard would have just turned in early and the morning guard wouldn’t be fully ready yet. I think this would be the best chance to attack.”

 

Jonghyun jumped when he heard the chair screech and looked over his shoulder to see the captain standing up quickly. He rolled the map up and handed it to the Minho  guy. “Take this and set the course. Don’t tell them anything more than it’s a raid. We need the guards to believe the same, to believe we’re smart enough to get them when they least expect it, but stupid enough to do it just to raid their seaports.”

 

The Minho  guy took the map and bowed. “Of course Captain Key, but may I ask who will be going after the p…the treasure?” The firstmate’s eyes traveled to Jonghyun when he corrected himself.            

               

Jonghyun couldn’t see it, but he could hear the grin in the captain’s voice when he replied, “That’s your job of course my dear friend.”

 

 The Minho  guy left and Jonghyun continued swabbing the captain’s floor glancing over at the captain every few seconds as he sat in his chair staring at the door.

               

 “You can stop that now,” the captain finally said after a long span of silence.

               

Jonghyun turned to him and leaned on the mop handle. “You said I had to clean every inch of the ship floors. This is the last room and I haven’t gotten it all.”

 

The captain raised a brow at him. “Are you being cheeky?”

               

 Jonghyun grinned. “Not at all just stating fact, captain. Or is it Key, that’s what that Minho  guy calls you; I never did get your name.”

 

“I never got yours,” the captain said, just stating fact.

 

Jonghyun chuckled. “I’m Jonghyun, so who are you exactly? I think I should be allowed to know who I’m stuck working for.”

 

 The captain laughed. “You’re really something, Jonghyun. A thief who steals from a pirate ship and this pirate ship of all ships, and doesn’t even know a thing about it. Yes, I am Captain Key, captain of the notorious ship, the Locket, a nameless ship with red sails until I took control.”

 

 “The sails are pink,” Jonghyun pointed out.

 

 “They’ve faded, they’re red.”

 

“Oh,” Jonghyun started swabbing again. “Why are they red?”

 

 “Because my predecessors soaked them in blood.”

 

 Jonghyun turned back to the captain with wide eyes. “They didn’t really! Blood doesn’t stain red, it stains brown.”

 

Captain Key just gave him a smirk and stood from his chair. “This ship has a spell on it as well. If it gets damaged, it still stays afloat. We could loose the whole bottom deck and it’d still sail.”

 

Jonghyun made a face. “You have a wizard on the ship then?”

 

The captain moved to his closet and unbuttoned his vest. “It was a witch, but there are none on this ship.”

               

 “Good, I don’t like them,” Jonghyun said and scrunched up his face, splashing the mop into the water a making drops spill out.

 

 “Something we share then, thief.”

 

Jonghyun paused again in his cleaning and watched the captain, Key, as he removed his coat and vest and undid the top few buttons of his shirt.

 

“I’ll permit you to talk if you stop staring at me like some patient dog. I don’t allow pets on this ship.”

 

“Sorry, it’s just you’re an odd pirate captain. This is some kind of legendary ship, probably too legendary that’s why I’ve never heard of it, I don’t like gossip. But, you don’t look like a pirate captain, you look like maybe a drug lord. You’re too clean and made up.”

 

The captain turned, running a hand through his black hair. “I like to keep a tidy ship, not all pirates have to be disgusting messes of a human being. I can be deadly and beautiful if I wish.”

 

Deadly and beautiful, Jonghyun guessed that fit Captain Key pretty well. “So, that Minho  guy is your first mate. I caught his slip up, what are you guys really doing going to Jeju Island?”

 

Key sat on the bed and leaned back. “I suppose I can tell the dog. You are under my command and I can kill you as I like without going through the fake democracy of the ship.”

 

 “I’m not a dog, you said you don’t allow pets on your ship.”

 

The captain just grinned. “Human pets are different. Besides, once you’re done here Minho  has a large barell of water to pour over you, you reek of waste and I can’t have my personal slave looking like the rest of those disgusting men handling my ship.”

 

Jonghyun perked up. “I get a bath?”

 

“Yes doggy,” the captain said and patted the end board of his bed, “and then you’ll get those loose hands of yours handcuffed right here, like a dog on a leash.”

 

“You know, being your personal slave doesn’t sound so appealing anymore.”

 

 The captain scoffed then smiled menacingly at Jonghyun. “It’s just going to get worse, we’re kidnapping a prince.”

 

**@};------------------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

The waves crashed gently against the cliffs of the Jeju Island castle, like a deep rumbling lullaby, the consistency of the waves assuring no storms, no trouble. Sometimes the waves lied though, they lied to the ones on the land they were meant to bring food and life to in exchange for the darlings that floated with Mother Sea and her lover, the wind. As the tides rolled into each other, they whispered words of the approaching danger like a chain until those words were crashed against the barrier of earth and echoed back with an all clear. 

 

The eldest prince of the Jeju kingdom slept lightly in his bed, window over the sea cliff opened so his troubled mind could get lost in the lullaby the night ocean. It was difficult being the child of a witch, and a dead one at that, dead before he knew her. And of course that met he inherited her powers, crowned the wizard of their kingdom, not the crowned prince. The king’s taking as a witch for a concubine was never meant to produce an heir, particularly one before the queen her self had. It was alright, the prince liked magic, now if only the whispering would stop.

 

Usually he could never tell the difference between the whispering of the ocean or of the guards outside his chambers, but tonight was different. He could hear the shift of the waves as if something was approaching, and in his dreams he imagined a ship large and with red sails being swept up at the castle door and then the red sails fell from the ship’s large and powerful masts and covered the castle in red, in blood.

 

The prince woke up gasping and made to look out his opened window. Darkness, that was all he could see, not even a guard with a lantern on any of the balconies at the cliff side of the castle. It wouldn’t be long until orange tinted the horizon line, but until then, blackness, vulnerability. He turned and rushed for his door, grabbing only breeches and his staff before swinging his bedroom door opened.

 

The guards turned with spears raised expecting a thief or an attacker using the prince’s room as an entrance. The eldest prince just looked at them with wide fearful eyes.

 

“A ship will dock with red sails,” he said.

 

The guards only rolled their eyes. “I thought you said it had pink sails last weeks.”

 

The other guard laughed. “And that it had a neat and polished captain your age. Really Prince Taemin, with all do respect, just because you’re a wizard doesn’t make you a soothsayer, too. Go back to bed and try to keep the nightmares to yourself.”

 

Prince Taemin, the eldest prince, tried to scramble past the guards but was only pushed back into the room.

 

“Please,” Taemin begged and slid to his knees as he banged his fists on the door. “I’m not lying, we’re really in danger.”

 

The guards only laughed and one chided back, “If we’re in danger than get us out of it yourself with your magic, we’re heading off to bed now.”

 

Their boot clattered down the hall and Taemin froze. They were leaving him alone, he felt that was worse than them keeping him locked up in his room, worse than not heading his words.

 

The waves crashed outside his window much louder now. Something was coming. Taemin bolted for the door and ran out.

 

“Kai! Kai!” he called his younger brother’s name as he ran down the hall to the crowned prince’s room. The guards were already gone for their change in shift by the time Taemin got to the large double doors. He banged on them, staff rattling, as he called again. “Kai! Kai!”

 

The crowned prince emerged from his room, rubbing his eyes just seconds before the canon fire started. Taemin jumped and his brother reached out pulling the elder into his arms protectively and looked around.

 

“Taemin, what’s going on?” Kai asked.

 

Taemin tugged on his brother’s night shirt. “There’s a raid, pirates with red sails. Quickly, you have to call the guards to arm, there’s no time to get father.”

 

“I…” Kai began then straightened up. “You’re right, I have to do it. I’ll send someone to father, you stay here though.”

 

“No, you can’t leave me alone. I’m the elder, I should come with you,” Taemin protested.

 

Kai shook his head. “No, we can’t put the wizard in danger. You don’t have that much control of your powers Taemin, so you can’t help in something small like this.”

 

“Is a raid small? Our people will be pillaged, our castle wall destroyed, this is not small by all means and I’ll be in more danger if I’m left alone.”

 

Kai pulled his elder brother off him. “Fine, you can help by going to find father yourself then he’ll tell you to stay put and you’ll listen to him.”

 

The crowned prince began to walk away from Taemin, but he reached out to plead once more. “Kai, I had a premonition. You can not leave me alone.”

 

“You still think you’re having those? We’ve never heard of a wizard or witch who could see the future, Taemin please, it was a coincidence. If anything, I permit you to use your powers to protect yourself, just be careful.” With that, Kai walked away.

 

Taemin bowed his head. Had his mother not had this power, he did not know. Perhaps they weren’t premonitions so much as he could hear the sea, hear what it whispered from miles away, the dangers coming their way. He had known of storms before the bird of a fishermen’s port landed with the report, dreams the sea brought to him. Washed up whales, measly week long catches, and when all the pigs in the royal farm were poisoned and died. He knew all that, but no one believed him. 

 

What pirate would sail with pink sails like a beacon?

 

Taemin decided he would find their father and beg once more to help. He used his powers only in small doses when he had lessons which happened only once every two weeks or more as they had to bring a witch teacher from the closest kingdom and she seemed to dislike his mother and so ignore his questions to enhance the learning process. He didn’t understand why anyone would dislike his mother or why they would like her. Maybe she was a horrible person, but beautiful. Oh, Taemin knew she was very beautiful.

 

He followed his brother, keeping the younger insight down the hall until they would have to part, Kai to the soldiers and Taemin to their father. As long as they were in the same vicinity then Taemin felt he wasn’t alone. They were getting close to the hall in which Taemin would have to split from his brother’s sight. The younger stopped, a soldier stepping up to him to talk. Taemin paused as well then decided to catch up. A soldier would accompany him, right?

 

The moment he took a step forward, a hand clamped around his mouth and he was pulled back. He clutched his staff hard and tried to bring its end into whoever had him and it rattled loudly.

 

“Taemin?” called Kai.

 

Taemin closed his eyes and bit the hand over his mouth. He moved away for a second, long enough for him to scream. “Kai!”

 

He got a glimpse of his brother’s scared face and heard him yell before his staff was ripped from his hand and its heavy gold handle was used to make his vision go black.

 

“Brother!”

 

 


	3. “Just as the sea, so does a person have depths you will never see.”

**Chapter 3**

 

**“Just as the sea, so does a person have depths you will never see.”**

               

 Jonghyun stayed clear of the chaos that ensued on the banks of the Jeju castle’s harbor. He leaned over the railing of the ship, mop in one hand, close to the captain’s cabin, and watched as the majority of the pirates scurried off the ship even before it had properly docked. They had only a matter of minutes to pillage and plunder, a distraction, Jonghyun had learned, for Minho’s assignment. The first mate had left on a boat capsized to leave a pocket of air large enough for him and the two men he took with him to capture the real treasure they came to get. A prince, Jonghyun had never thought to steal a prince before, to steal a person. A heart yes he liked stealing those, but not the whole person. He wondered what Key wished to do with the boy. He had heard the princes of Jeju were by far the best looking princes in the East. He had heard them referred to as the sun and the moon, a golden haired beauty and one as suave as the night. Jonghyun frowned at the though of gold hair. Only foreigners and wizards had gold hair. Which prince where they planning on taking?

 

There was a large sleeping housing street on the castle harbor they chose to bare upon. Jonghyun looked at each of the houses and apartments lined up neatly and humbly on the shore with one or two fishing houses between them. It looked like a nice humble place, not for the rich or the poor, just families working for their living and not living more or less than what they made. People who knew the equilibrium of the world, but sometimes equilibrium slipped and something horrible would have to come so something good may be returned later. Jonghyun wasn’t sure if there was anything good enough for the pillaging that befell them. Key was a merciless captain, or perhaps heartless was the word. The pirates ran straight to the houses pulling out wives and daughters and young sons and ripping them of their pride and innocence right there on the rocky sand. It was with a disgusted fascination Jonghyun watched them almost jaded to such sites. Living on that abandoned island he had learned to overlook the unfortune of others. Many times he had walked past young girls who had been selling fruits and goods on the street with large smiles being plundered by the drug lords’ lackeys. When he saw them again, their smiles were burdened and stomachs round. At least the boys with the same fate didn’t have to carry the memory around with them. Memories that went through the same fate years later.

 

One of the ship whores had a girl on a rock, knife to her throats. He could almost hear the words he said to her instructing her to enjoy it to pretend she liked it, words he himself had probably heard when he was first taken on a ship. Pretty boys didn’t last long where anarchy was the government. Jonghyun tightened his hold on the edge of the ship. This wasn’t anarchy though, not like where he lived for the past six years. This was tyranny, badly controlled tyranny. Where was Key? How could someone like that let them hurt people? Couldn’t they just take the gold and leave, take the prince and go? No, they needed a distraction and Key needed his pirates happy.

 

Jonghyun was a hypocrite, so he turned away and hummed to himself so he would not have to hear the girls scream as they were torn from the insides out by unruly dirty men. He swabbed the decked matching his movements to the screams and laughter making a dance of it. Clean, clean, clean the ship before all the filth returned. He laughed. He should have gotten off, too, if he wanted it all cleaned, and the captain. Jonghyun’s eyes trained on the captain’s cabin where he could barely make out the outline of Key hunched form sitting at his table with the dim light of his lantern. What was he doing, going over his plans? What were his plans? Jonghyun only knew it wasn’t to pillage and plunder it was a kidnapping. But, why kidnap a prince? Pirates didn’t kidnap, they took and took and expected nothing more than they took. Or maybe that was what differenced pirates from land thieves.

 

Hostage?

 

Jonghyun rested the mop against the ship railing and started for the captain’s cabin. Dogs were allowed to sniff around, right? He approached the door only to have a horn blow and the laughing on the shore turned to yells of all business. The captain’s door opened and Jonghyun stepped back as not to get smacked by it. The pirates quickly clambered onto the deck and saluted or bowed to Key as his heels clicked across the wood. He stopped in the middle and steadied his eyes toward the castle. Jonghyun moved behind the line of pirates to be closer and watch the captain. He saw Key grin and looked toward the castle to see a horse running down to meet them, Minho  leading it with a slumped figure held in his arms, slumped and with gold hair that Jonghyun could see from here. He frowned, the wizard prince.

 

“Men!” Key yelled. “Get your dirty thighs into position, we’re getting out of here. If you see any military, shoot them before they’re close enough to shoot you.”

 

“Should we ready the cannons?” one of the pirates asked.

 

Key grinned. Minho  wasn’t far now. “I think one will suffice.”

 

“Aye, aye, Captain.” They quickly scurried about, raising the anchors and fixing the masts.

 

“Key,” Jonghyun called making his way toward the captain.

 

The captain turned with piercing dark eyes and drew his sword, the end poking into Jonghyun’s chest. “Did I give you permission to call me so familiarly. I’m Captain or Master to you, dog.”

 

“Alright, Master~,” Jonghyun grinned and pushed the sword away from his chest, “how about you tell me what’s going on. Why are we kidnapping a prince?”

 

“You know more than they do already,” Key said waving a hand at the pirates. “Be happy with that and wait patiently until Master gives you a new command.” He patted Jonghyun’s head and turned away.

 

Jonghyun frowned and moved his eyes down the captain’s back view. His long white coat really covered up his body line so he only could study his shoes, heels high, much too high, that was probably why he was taller than Jonghyun. Jonghyun turned to watch the chase of Minho  and the castle guards. He laughed seeing how far away they were from Minho. He was already on the shore racing the horse down the sand. And the ship was moving…the ship was moving. Was Key abandoning his first mate, the kidnapping some rouse to get rid of the tall young man?

 

Minho  started down the pier, one of the guards catching up to him. He had the horse jump just as a cannon was set off destroying the pier. The horse didn’t make it, falling into the water whinnying, it’d probably be saved soon. Minho  jumped off and landed with a roll onto the deck, the prince jostled away by the movement. His large brown eyes met Jonghyun’s and the thief had to look away from their surprised innocence.

 

“Always so showy aren’t you, Minho,” Key said helping his first mate up.

 

The first mate instead handed him a large hold staff with a blue crystal and stood up himself, picking the prince up by the back of his white night shirt.

 

“That’s how you always stage it, Key. Here’s your prince.”

 

“Stop, let go of me!” the prince yelled trying to beat and Minho. Key pulled out his sword and poked it into the prince’s cheek a small drop of red blood rolling onto the silver tip.

 

“I would stay quiet if you wish to live to see the sunrise,” Key warned. He pulled his sword away and wiped the blood with a handkerchief.

 

The prince shuddered. “You won’t…you won’t get away with this…Ah!”

 

Minho  shook him and grabbed the prince’s wrists when he tried to fight him again.

 

“We’re already setting sail, my dear Prince Taemin,” Key said.

 

A loud uproar of protests came from the pirates. “You said we couldn’t take anyone with us, captain. How come Minho does?”

 

Key and Minho  both glared at them even Jonghyun shrunk back.

 

“You think the purpose of this was simply for your pleasure? You don’t know your captain well yet.” Key turned to Taemin and smiled. It was sweet, sympathetic, and sinister. “If you can live long enough you’ll get to see the treasure that will come from your suffering.”

 

“Are we going after treasure, Captain?” a pirate asked.

 

He nodded and raised his sword into the dark morning sky. “We’re going after the Blue Heavens in the Red.”  

 

**@};----------------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

By morning Jonghyun was tired. He wasn’t the type to steal during the night and so he often found himself curled up against a warm body for the night. Lately, it had been Baekhyun though he hadn’t had sex with the candle maker, he was allowed into his bed after sweets promises, laughter, and a few caresses. He had slept just fine the night prior considering he was indeed handcuffed to the captain’s bed; head propped up on the footboard and curled up in a sitting position. He’d slept worse before, and though he wasn’t pressed against a warm body, there was another body in the room and the light sounds of sleep the captain made were comforting though they sounded more like disgruntled whimpers. This was the first time he had stayed up a whole night, though. Once they had made it far enough away from Jeju, Key had gave the command that everyone be allowed a rinse off for their efforts, not a bath, just buckets of warm water, salt boiled out of them, to be thrown over the crew. And Jonghyun was put in charge of throwing said buckets.

 

Jonghyun had come to the conclusion that the crew did not like him. Well he couldn’t really blame them; he did steal from them and had gotten away with his life. It wasn’t such a bad life either except for the kidnapping and pillaging, at least their captain was good looking and the ship whores were well kept…most of them. (Jonghyun hadn’t tried going after one, he didn’t think he had been there long enough to do so without getting into more trouble. What if he went after the captain’s or Minho’s personal boy?) But he would have rather stayed away from having to deal with the nakedness of the crew.

 

Scars, so many scars even on the ship whores, and other wounds that were infected. Not many, but the ones that had them had a lot. Jonghyun wondered if they had a medic, someone to heal them or if there was just a large group here stubborn enough to keep their wounds and ailments to themselves. Other than scars and signs of childhood sicknesses, maybe an arm or leg gone here and there, the rest were fine. He tried asking one of the younger ship whores when he helped splash the warm water over their head. He only shook his head and got out “Our Captain…” before Jonghyun was yelled at by one of the older pirates to stop talking to his boy.

 

Not only was he tired, arms swore from the repeated action, but he was wet, too, he always seemed to end up wet when it came to his work on this ship. Jonghyun started for the captain’s cabin to ask Key what his next job was or perhaps to curl up at the end of Key’s bed to take a nap.  Maybe Key would be napping and then Jonghyun could just curl up next to him…no he’d get himself killed if he did that.

 

 The door to the captain’s cabin opened and the prince stepped out. He looked around confused, gold hair too bright in the midday’s sun. He held onto the door with bound hands and started to walk. A smile tugged on Jonghyun’s lips seeing his shaky legs. The prince frowned when he had moved as far as the door would allow and pushed himself away from it. He held his hands close to his chest as he walked on unsteady legs. The boat rocked and the prince’s eyes widened before he fell forward onto his elbows and knees.

 

Jonghyun rushed over and helped the prince up. “Are you alright?”

 

The prince looked at him fearfully and pulled away only to threaten to fall back down.

 

“Relax, just come with me and I’ll sit you somewhere. You can’t go walking around when you haven’t gotten your sea legs,” Jonghyun said.

 

The prince came with him reluctantly and Jonghyun sat him on a pile of crates near the captain’s cabin. He pushed some of his gold bangs back and inspected his face. “You’re all dirtied up already, prince. I’ll ask Key if I can’t wash you off, too.”

 

The prince’s large dark eyes became curious but still wary of him. “Who is Key?”

 

“The captain,” Jonghyun answered. “You don’t have to be naked if you don’t want to, but I promise I’m a lover not a molester though I won’t promise I won’t take a peak, you are very pretty after all prince.”

 

The prince scoffed. “I don’t trust pirates.”

 

Jonghyun grinned and wiped a smudge from the prince’s face. “Lucky for you I’m not a pirate, I’m a thief.”

 

“You know, that’s not any better. You’re still a criminal,” the prince said.

 

Jonghyun stood and placed his hands on his hips looking offended. “I think it’s a little better, at least I’m not known for raping and destroying whole streets. You got to give me some credit.”

 

“Why are you here then?” the prince asked. He was fiddling with the ropes on his wrists trying to slide them off with the friction. Jonghyun stilled his hands.

 

“You’ll just get rope burn like that. I’m here because the things I still are random and by impulse. Stealing money is easy; stealing a clay unicorn is hard.”

 

The prince stared at his wrists, lips pouted. “Why would you steal a clay unicorn?”

 

“Because I felt like it. Sold it for a good amount, too.”

 

The prince sighed and rested his head against the wall. “I can’t do anything without my staff.”

 

“That gold thing Minho  was carrying, that’s your catalyst. Wizards can’t perform magic without a catalyst.”

 

The prince nodded. “Yeah…who is Minho?”

 

Jonghyun lifted a hand above his head. “The tall guy that kidnapped you; he’s the first mate.”

 

“He has my staff,” the prince said then turned his eyes on Jonghyun. Jonghyun raised a brow at the innocent look they held, too innocent. “Why are you here if you’re a thief?”

 

“Got caught stealing from them, it’s a punishment,” Jonghyun said and crossed his arms. He thought he knew what the prince was getting at and he found it amusing.

 

“Oh? Then aren’t we the same, here against our wills? Would you…you could help me right? You could help me get my staff back, help me get away.”

 

Jonghyun laughed and reached down ruffling the prince’s gold hair. “Sorry little prince, but we’re not the same. I did something bad and I have to go through my punishment for it. I get to stare at the pretty captain here for a year and that’s not a punishment I’m going to make worse, you understand? Also, no offense little guy, but I don’t like wizards.”

 

“Taemin,” the prince grumbled. If his hands weren’t tied, Jonghyun imagined he would have crossed his arms.

 

“Sorry?”

 

“My name, I’m Prince Taemin.”

 

“Well Prince Taemin, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Thief Jonghyun and I hope you make it out of here alive and in good shape.”

 

The prince almost smiled.

 

“Dog!”

 

Jonghyun turned and frowned seeing Key strut toward them. The captain looked between Jonghyun and the prince then sighed. He wrinkled his nose at Jonghyun.

 

“What is it Master Key.”

 

“Captain…Master’s fine, too,” Key began and looked at Jonghyun curiously. “Dog, I need you to feed him. You swabbed the kitchen before, Onew should be there making a feast, we always have a feast after a pillaging. Take the prince down to get food and you can feed yourself.”

 

Jonghyun grinned. “I thought my master was supposed to feed me.”

 

Key only glared and Jonghyun shrunk back a little. Jonghyun decided in the sunlight, Key’s eyes weren’t like the dark night ocean, but like dark pools of blood. He swallowed.

 

“I don’t have the time for you right now or for him,” he gestured toward the prince, “just do what I say and get him some food then throw a couple buckets of water on him and bring him back to my cabins until I decide what to do with him.”

 

Jonghyun watched the captain strut back toward his cabin, Minho  waiting outside. The first mate let Key go in first, large eyes watching…not Jonghyun, no they were going past him. Jonghyun looked behind him at the prince curled up on the crates.

 

“Come on, Prince Taemin, we’re going to go get food.”

 

**@};------------------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun kept a firm hand on Taemin’s back as they headed down to the lower docks, not exactly on the prince, Jonghyun didn’t think Taemin would take well to him actually touching him, but just close enough to be reassuring. The rest of the pirate crew was loitering about doing their usual jobs, but their eyes followed him and the prince. They didn’t watch them with the same sinister amusement they had been watching Jonghyun with for the past couple days, this look was something darker and focused more on the prince. It left Jonghyun on edge and he let out a relieved breath when they finally reach the kitchen’s door.

 

Jonghyun opened the door and ushered Taemin in first. “After you, Prince Taemin.”

 

Taemin nodded and walked inside. Jonghyun gave the curious crew a once over before going in after. There was a large silver table in the kitchen; Jonghyun remembered it when he had swabbed the floor, though he didn’t remember it being so bloody, or the floor being so bloody, it was like something had been massacred in here. He turned to the prince to see him flattened against the wall trembling a bit.

 

“Hey, it’s a kitchen, of course it’s going to be like this,” Jonghyun said though he wasn’t half convinced himself. “Key said there was a feast that probably means a lot of meat.”

 

There was another door on the opposite side of them that lead to the storage room right next to the oven. It opened and a sandy haired man walked out, all grins, carrying a crate of dead chickens.

 

“Oh, well hello,” he said spying them and only grinned more. Half way to the silver table he slipped on the blood covered floor. Jonghyun hurried over and grabbed the crate before it could topple onto the man, but the man still slid to the floor. He stood back up and took the crate. Jonghyun noticed he was limping.

 

“They…they don’t have heads,” the prince said still plastered to the wall.

 

“Well of course they don’t, prince, have you never been to your castle’s kitchen? It would be most uncivilized to pluck and skin them alive,” the man said.

 

“You’re the cook?” Jonghyun asked.

 

The man started to spread the chickens across the silver table. “Indeed, and you’re the captain’s dog. I’m Onew.”

 

“Jonghyun,” Jonghyun said. “We’re having chicken?”

 

“We always have chicken. I’m in charge of cooking and chickens are the easiest to breed on a ship. Plus, they’re my personal taste so whatever the cook and captain says go,” Onew said his smile turning menacing for a moment. “You don’t have a problem with chicken do you?”

 

Jonghyun held up his hands. “No, chicken’s great, isn’t that right, prince?”

 

The prince stared at the silver table, nose wrinkled. “I prefer steak.”

 

Jonghyun widened his eyes half expecting the cook to throw the large knife he produced from his apron at Taemin, but he only laughed.

 

“Of course, I could only expect a prince to want the best, but you’ll have to make do with chicken until Captain lets you go,” Onew said and brought the knife down the ribcage of one of the already plucked chickens. “What did you guys come down here for?”

 

“Food,” Jonghyun said. “Key told me to bring the prince down here and get us both food.”

 

“Well I don’t have anything ready really. There’s a fresh tuna I just cut up if you’re okay with raw fish you can have some of that and there some fresh bread and cheese in that cupboard over there,” Onew said.

 

Jonghyun went about grabbing the bread and cheese and handed them to Taemin before going to the bag. He covered his nose and tried not to look at all the meat and other things he wasn’t sure of until he saw the large tuna cut neatly. He grabbed a small fillet and brought it out for the prince. “You’re okay with raw fish?”

 

Taemin nodded and placed a bit of the fish on a piece of bread chewing. “I didn’t think a pirate ship would have good tuna.”

 

“Of course, chicken and tuna, that’s our meat while we’re at sea,” Onew said and continued cutting up his chickens.

 

Jonghyun ate as well watching the cook with a morbid fascination. He once slept with a butcher, he was always half terrified he’d be strung up in the fridge at some point, but he found that danger sort of exciting.

 

“Oh, and Jonghyun, you shouldn’t call Captain, Key, to his face. I did that when I first got here and he was not pleased,” the cook said.

 

Jonghyun grinned. “I call him Master to his face, but I’ll call him Key everywhere else I like.”

 

The cook laughed.

 

“How did you come by here, Onew, sir?” the prince piped up. “You seem…nice not like the other pirates.”

 

The cook smiled at him. “I’m not a pirate, I’m a cook. I came along some time after Minho  did. They found me with my leg busted on the shore of the mainland they planned on raiding, but another ship had already raided ahead. Captain fixed me up and made me the cook. He had been cooking before which was odd, and the crew was a little more unruly. It’s funny though, how putting three people in positions that hold so much control over a crew will make them stand down.”

 

“What do you mean?” Jonghyun asked.

 

“Captain was only sixteen when I joined, Minho, too. He was fourteen when he captained the ship.”

 

Jonghyun stared at the cook surprised. A fourteen year old captaining a ship?

 

“You might hear more about it later, he doesn’t much like bringing it up,” Onew continued. “Either way, he had to get a first mate and found Minho somewhere, on a Spanish base of the mainland or something. Minho’s half you know?”

 

“The tall guy?” Taemin asked. “He’s from the west?”

 

Onew shook his head. “No, just his father or something. They were keeping it all pretty well here, but there crew was kind of miserable. Then I was appointed cook and when someone who’s good with their tools is appointed cook, appointed mastery over your food, you tend to listen.”

 

“So you’re a good cook?” Jonghyun asked and took another bite of the bread and cheese.

 

Onew laughed and brought up one of his cooking knives before hurling it at Jonghyun’s head. It landed only hairs length from his head. “No, Captain taught me how to cook. Like I said, I’m just good with my tools.”

 


	4. “Allies are found among the unfriendly and enemies within them all.”

**Chapter 4**

 

**“Allies are found among the unfriendly and enemies within them all.”**

               

Jonghyun rubbed his stomach as he made his way back up to the top deck. He lowered his head when the afternoon sun hit his eyes and kept it down as the other pirates rushed by hurried in their excitement to be done with the daily duties before the feast that was promised them by their captain. The floor was dirty again, not as dirty has it had been before Jonghyun had gotten there and swapped the whole ship, but dirty none the less. He wondered how mud tracks had gotten on the ship when there was no mud to be seen anywhere. Then again, perhaps they weren’t mud tracks. Jonghyun made a face and walked around the tracks before getting close to the captain’s cabin.

 

The door opened and Minho  walked out carrying an armful of rolled up parchment and a book. He went over to the side of the ship and threw the parchment overboard and then leaned against the railing to search through the book. Jonghyun watched him curiously wondering why he would waste paper like that which such things would the scarce on a ship. The click of heels warned Jonghyun of the captain’s presence and he shrunk back as the foreboding figure walked past him without acknowledgement and headed straight for the first mate. Key leaned next to Minho on the ship’s railing and leaned in to point out sections of the book Minho  was looking through. The first mate nodded then lowered the book and turned, face becoming serious. They exchanged words that Jonghyun couldn’t make out with his limited ability at lip reading. Key smirked approvingly and looked over the side of the ship, body bent far out to get a good look. Jonghyun’s eye ran along the sewn line of the back of the captain’s jacket that paralleled his spine and met almost perfectly with the seam of his fitted breeches. The swallow like tails of Key’s coat spread and gave just enough room for Jonghyun to see how there were the tell tale signs of a crease that a full bottom made in fitted pants. The coat tails came back together blocking Jonghyun’s view as the figure moved. Jonghyun’s eyes traveled back up only to be met with those pools of dark blood colored eyes.

 

Jonghyun swallowed hard and looked away. He looked around wondering how to approach the captain. It was late and he had questions on what he should do with himself, act like part of the crew and join them in the feast or, now that he was somewhat properly fed, was he to curl up at the end of Key’s bed board and be chained up again. Key’s heels clicked across the ship boards again and Jonghyun stiffened as they came close to him.

 

“Where’s the prince? I hope you didn’t lose him while I put him in your charge.”

 

Jonghyun turned and grinned at Key. “Not at all, Master Key; I know exactly where he is. Chef Onew offered him a clean bench in the kitchen and a pillow to nap on. The poor guy was falling asleep as he ate. Must have been having nightmares before we kidnapped him, pretty sad really.”

 

“It’s not my business to know how sad his situation is only to know the state he is in at the present. Asleep is fine as is with Onew. The prince made a wise choice there,” Key said a hand on his hip. “As for you, into the cabin.”

 

Jonghyun frowned. “You mean…I don’t get to be part of the festivities?”

 

Key grabbed the collar of Jonghyun’s shirt and pulled him closer. Jonghyun held his hands out submissively and wondered how much taller the captain would be if he wasn’t wearing the heels. Though they looked good, Jonghyun found it unfair the few inches they added to the captain’s height advantage.

 

“Listen and understand me, dog, you are not a guest here or part of the crew. You are a slave, here until I either get annoyed with you and kill you or you serve your term and then I might still kill you if not just chop off your thieving little hands. You’re a work dog and I plan to work you hard, understand?”

 

Jonghyun nodded. He would happily have the captain ‘work him hard’ if only that didn’t incorporate swabbing the deck of feces and washing scabbed up middle aged men and their whores. “Right, got it. Into the cabin I go then.”

 

Key started to the captain’s cabin and Jonghyun followed. “What about the prince?”

 

“I’ll fetch him later if I feel like it,” Key answered as he headed for the chains wrapped around  his end board undoing them and ushering Jonghyun over.

 

“My fetch him you mean you’ll send that Minho  guy after him?”

 

“Yes, or you since you are my dog.” Key pulled Jonghyun down onto the floor and kneeled in front of him with the chains.

 

“You know Key…I mean Master Key, you really don’t have to put the chains on.”

 

Key grabbed Jonghyun’s wrists and started to wrap the chains around them. “Yes I do.”

 

“I mean, you’re not going to bed right now so you don’t have to chain me when you’re awake. We’re in the middle of the ocean running away from the royal navy for kidnapping a prince. I’m no better than you guys so it would be stupid of me to run away.”

 

“Stuffing your pants with gold from a pirate ship isn’t stupid?” Key challenged.

 

“I almost got away with it, you know. But really, you can lock me up when it’s time to sleep. I’ll stay in here like a good dog,” Jonghyun said and smiled at the captain as genuinely as he could.

 

Key studied the thief before sighing. “You unfortunately have a point. And the crowd might be rowdy later. How good are you at fighting?”

 

“If you lift up my shirt you’ll see,” Jonghyun said.

 

“No that’s perfectly alright. I saw your build when I took the gold back if you don’t remember.” Key stood and let the chains go. They clattered to the grown and he headed toward the cabin door. “If I whistle, you come, understood?”

 

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Jonghyun said then frowned. “Wait, Master Key.”

 

The captain turned, his hand on the door. “What is it, dog?”

 

“How long have you been captain? Chef Onew said you captained this ship at fourteen.”

 

“Onew shouldn’t talk to dogs,” Key said. “It’s been eight years.”

 

Eight years, that made him twenty-two. A year younger than Jonghyun.

 

“Is that all, dog? I can smell the food being served.”

 

“Just one more thing. What is the Blue Heavens in the Red?”

 

“You’re not a pirate, you wouldn’t know, nor should you concern yourself with it.” With that, the Captain left leaving Jonghyun in the room alone.

 

**@};----------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Taemin didn’t know where he was. The room was dark and he could smell stale blood. His bed was hard, too, and small. He stood blinking into the darkness and started to walk, hands out. A gasped left his lips as his hands slid across something soft and slimy and then his torso met the cold metal of a table. The prince turned and went to wipe his hand on his breeches only to hit his wrist on the corner of the table. The sudden pain startled him and he slipped in what must have only been blood still not dried. He grabbed for the table to keep his balance. His arm made contact with something sharp and it fell clattering to the ground. Taemin blinked down at it shining with the light that seeped in through a door. A knife? A knife! The prince slid to the floor and scrambled back until his back hit the wall. Where was he? He brought his knees to his chest and stayed quiet. Knives and blood, where was he?

 

Laughter and loud music filtered from the light under the door. Taemin lifted his head and listened. It wasn’t the kind of music he was use to at the castle, not soft and practiced but loud and played however they felt pleased. And singing there was singing so off key and deep that it almost made Taemin laugh. Joyous music like the kind he sometimes heard travel on the wind from the peasants in Jeju. He wasn’t in Jeju though. Taemin couldn’t imagine a room in the castle that smelled so acrid and so close to where people had fun except for maybe the kitchens which he had only visited once when very young. There had been flower everywhere though, not blood. He’d eaten cake with Kai because the younger wouldn’t stop crying until he got some.

 

He was in a kitchen but not Jeju’s kitchen.

 

Taemin listened harder to the music. The voices, there were no women voices and one stood out amongst them, one that kept in tune and sang much higher much more impressively than the others. It sounded familiar to Taemin. It was a beautiful voice but it sent shivers of fear up his spine. Pirates. Songs sung by pirates. That was the captain singing so strongly above the rest. The prince looked around the room again eyes adjusted to the darkness now. There was a bench to the side with a pillow on it where he had woken up. He had fallen asleep in the kitchen with Chef Onew. Taemin’s nose wrinkled seeing the splatters of blood everywhere on the floor and raw pieces of chicken scooted to one side of the table where Taemin had put his hand. The rest of the table was clean though and Taemin wondered where the chef had gone. Was he alone?

 

For the first time since he had been abducted Taemin was alone. But he was in a room alone and that was no better than being stuck in a cage. At least it was something though and he didn’t want to stay in the kitchen much longer with his stomach churning from the smells or was that because the ship was moving with the partying and waves. Taemin climbed up the wall to stand and kept a hand plastered to it as he tried to quietly make his way to the door. He moved his hand to the handle and carefully twisted it and pulled the door opened. Taemin peaked out just a crack to see if anyone was guarding it. He couldn’t see anyone and opened it a little more. There were pirates in a corner barely lit by the moonlight that traveled from the floor boards on the upper deck. He squinted to see what they were doing and covered his mouth when he saw. He wanted to shrink back into the room but they were preoccupied, right? He could get by them without them noticing. He hoped the boy in between the pirates was alright though. It looked painful so Taemin faced away from them as he slid out of the kitchen and walked along the wall trying to remember where the stairs where.

 

He was set on finding his staff. Even with what little magic he had learned he knew he had a better chance of getting back to Jeju if he had his staff, had something to threaten the pirates with. Taemin wasn’t good at fight with anything else. He was a wizard and wizards were only taught magic or so he was told, but he did have a little brother, one who need help learning to sword fight and so he knew enough to block with his staff. He could fight if he had his staff but where the gold rod was Taemin wasn’t sure. He had a hunch it was in the captain’s cabin and that was on the top deck.

 

Taemin found the stairs by accident, tripping over them and he curled up to one side to make sure no one heard. It was silent other than the moaning in the corner with the pirates and boy so he continued up the stairs climbing on all four. The music got louder the higher he climbed and Taemin frowned. If he walked in on the party he wouldn’t be able to get to his staff. The captain or the western man, Minho, would find him if another pirate didn’t tattle first. He poked his head out first at the top. The stairs were close to the captain’s cabin and Taemin was thankful for that. He was also thankful that everyone who was walking around the bottom decks of the ship was gathered at the other end drinking and eating and singing. Taemin looked up and saw a pirate in the crow’s nest, but he was staring off into the night sky. It was clear, a lucky break. Taemin scrambled quickly across the empty floor between the stairs and the captain’s cabin and plastered himself against the wall.  

               

The prince spared a glance at the party again and saw the captain on the table waving a glass in the air and singing loudly starting to get off key. Taemin guessed he was beginning to get drunk and if the captain was drunk then his men must already be plastered. Taemin’s stomach tightened and the thought and he moved to the little window that looked inside the cabin. Again, the room was dark but there was enough light for him to catch anything glittering in the moonlight like the gold handle of his staff. All he saw instead was a man hunched over at the foot of the captain’s bed. It was the thief. Taemin felt a sort of sympathy for the thief or maybe it was simply a desperate need for companionship that brought on the feeling on a ship full of kidnappers. He really did seem like a dog. Perhaps, even if it was a small chance, the thief could tell him where his staff was: hidden in the captain’s wardrobe, thrown overboard (which Taemin prayed was not the case), or would he need to find where the first mate slept?

 

Taemin moved away from the window and moved around to the door intending on approaching the thief. With his hand almost touching the handle his mouth was suddenly covered. He kicked out as another hand grabbed his waist and tugged, foot making contact with the door just barely before he was pulled away. He tried to scream and ended up just biting the hand on his face as he was pulled down the steps. He turned his head and glanced over at the party wishing someone would see, the captain, the first mate, anyone with a heart. They were all just drunken pirates and the hand came back to cover his mouth before he could scream out angrily to them. He didn’t get a chance to see the faces of the pirates now once again in the darkness of the lower decks. He could feel the stairs digging into his back and stiffened when a hand came to his breeches tugging on the hem.

 

“He’s so pretty,” a voice said. “Almost looks like a woman.”

 

“Captain never said we couldn’t touch him, did he?” said another voice.

 

Taemin whimpered as he felt the cold of steel against his stomach.

 

“Be quiet your majesty or we’ll gut you.”

 

“I wonder how many maidens he’s defiled. Royalty gets to do that to all the willing girls.”

 

“Don’t know but we’ll make him feel what it’s like. Do you want to know what it’s like with a man?”

 

Taemin felt something lick the side of his throat. He shook his head.

 

**@};-------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

It was hard to sleep with all the laughter and rough housing, but Jonghyun found some solace in the noise and drifted in and out of consciousness. There was a voice that kept breaking in, singing and laughing above the rest. Jonghyun thought for a moment it was the captain’s voice but he found it hard to picture Key in all his serious beautiful glory singing merrily with his crew and getting drunk on beer or wine. He had always found it harder to sleep with the noise of parties and happiness than with the creeks and yells of danger in the streets he’d lived for the past six years. It use to be the other way around, he use to walk around sleep deprived during the day, but you learn to ignore it all, learn to sleep when it’s dangerous and play when there’s joy to be had. With such logic, he should not have been so startled when a kick made contact with the captain’s door.

 

Jonghyun roused himself and blinked around the room. He took a minute to stretch and yawn cursing when his elbow hit Key’s end board. The pain sent a wave of sobriety through him and he looked around more alert. What had woken him? He stared at the door then stood and walked over to it. He touched it and kicked the wood with various strengths before deciding someone had indeed kicked the door. Jonghyun looked around him and then opened the door to peek outside. Most of the pirates were on the other side of the top deck. Well, Jonghyun figured Key wouldn’t be pleased that someone had kicked his door so Jonghyun might as well find out who had. And if that wasn’t a good enough excuse to get up and walk around, he could just say he had to pee. Key couldn’t object to him relieving himself in a place that wasn’t his bed. He was a good dog after all.

 

The thief slipped out of the cabin and hummed merrily to himself as he made his way to the railing of the ship. He paused hearing muffled voices and looked to the side to see the square cut out in the floor that was the opening for the stairs down to the lower decks. He frowned then grimaced. If anything he should probably go check on the prince. One look over at the party told him the captain had no real intention of dealing with the prince tonight. (Also, that it was indeed the captain that had been singing and oh was Jonghyun impressed by it.) He went back to the cabin and took the lantern down from where it was by the door and walked to the steps. He was only half way down when he could see the bodies squirming at the bottoms of the steps.

 

“Hey, can’t you guys do that somewhere else? You’re in the way there,” Jonghyun said and moved down closer. His eyes widened seeing the blonde hair and he hurried faster. “Hey, stop that!”

 

“What do you want thief?” asked one of the pirates, his hand on the prince’s naked thigh.

 

Jonghyun took a quick glance at the prince. Other than his shirt cut off and the shivering of his body it seemed Jonghyun had got there just in time. He kind of wanted to go back, he wasn’t really the hero type and he didn’t like wizards, but princes…well Taemin was a prince and it was only his first day here. He could save the kid once from being raped.

 

“It looks like you’re having fun, but you’ll have to find someone else to have fun with. The captain wanted me to retrieve him when he woke up. Seems like he’s awake now, time for me to take him.”

 

One of the pirates laughed. “Ha, like Captain cares what happens to him. He doesn’t care what happens to anybody that’s why he commands this ship.” His grip on the prince’s thigh tightened and he started to turn Taemin onto his stomach. The other pirates chuckled and Jonghyun tried not to watch them get excited.

 

“Help,” the prince said, voice muffled by a hand, but his eyes spoke loud enough for Jonghyun to understand. They were really young eyes, like a child’s though Jonghyun was sure the Jeju prince’s were practically adults. Guilt though, Jonghyun could feel it. He couldn’t stand there and let a child be taken advantage of, an adult yes, but a child never.

 

“I’m not helping you,” Jonghyun said with a shrug and started to turn. “Though, I don’t think the captain would take well to his captive being scared into being a mute. He captured him and now we’re going in search of the Blue Heavens in the Red. Don’t you think there’s a connection?”

 

The one pirate pulled away from the prince’s body and stared Jonghyun down. “Captain never gave the command we couldn’t touch him.”

 

“He also never said you could. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours, cut the kid a break. Cut me a break, too, I’ve got to get him to the top deck before your captain comes to check and make sure I did what he told me,” Jonghyun argued.

 

“You’re ruining our fun. What do you care about the captain’s order? Be quiet and we’ll let you play with him, too.”

 

“He’s not my taste, I don’t like wizard. I only care because I’m Master Key’s dog after all.” Jonghyun grinned.

 

A pirate laughed. “Then dogs should go tattle to their owners.”

 

Jonghyun went down the last flight of stairs and stared back at all the pirates. “You’re quite right. Bark, bark, bark, bark.”

 

The pirates shrunk away.

 

“You’re crazy, barking.”

 

“Fine have him first we’ll just get him later.”

 

Jonghyun moved closer to the prince as the pirates moved away and laughed. He stopped when he felt something cling to his shirt. He brought the lantern down and saw the top of golden hair nuzzled into his chest. He sighed.

 

“Kid, don’t walk around on your own, you’re too delicate against a bunch of sex sick pirates.”

 

“Thank you,” the prince murmured.

 

“Wasn’t helping you, prince, just barking when I see something I don’t like. I’m a dog after all.”

 


	5. “Morals still kick hard even when concerning an enemy.”

**Chapter 5**

 

**“Morals still kick hard even when concerning an enemy.”**

 

Morning found Jonghyun still curled up in the corner of the second deck with the prince asleep in his lap. Honestly he meant to pick the boy up once he’d fallen asleep and take him to the captain’s cabin, but really it was so much quieter down here than it had been in the captain’s cabin where he could hear Key and the rest of the crew having a merry time. Now, it wasn’t one hundred percent quiet, but Jonghyun was a lot more use to the dangerous silence of skittering rats and men moaning in the dark, that’s what he was use to when not in a lover’s bed on the island. And even though Jonghyun didn’t have a taste for the wizard prince he was still a pretty warm body and Jonghyun had a weakness for pretty warm bodies that had gotten him in trouble countless times when he first got to the island. Pretty warm bodies often left you with nothing in the morning especially when they were cheap. Taemin wasn’t cheap though, he was a prince, and it would have cost more than a years worth of loot for each of those pirates had they succeeded in putting their filth inside the prince.

 

Upon waking up, Jonghyun found he did not regret saving Taemin.

 

 “Hey prince, you got to wake up,” Jonghyun said, voice rough with morning rasp. He shook the prince’s shoulder, but Taemin only scrunched up his face and buried his face dangerously closer to where his head had fallen onto Jonghyun’s lap during the night. “Whoa now, just because I don’t like wizards doesn’t mean I’m still not going to get hard if you keep pushing your face there, prince.”

 

Taemin’s eyes snapped opened and he looked around then stared at Jonghyun, frightened.

 

Jonghyun reached out and patted his golden hair. “Calm down now, prince. I’m not going to eat you. Let’s get back up to the top deck. It’s still pretty early; maybe we can get into Key’s cabin before he wakes up. You should have seen him drunk, probably has a major hangover now.”

 

“Is that why those men did that,” the prince asked, “because they’re captain was drunk?”

 

Jonghyun frowned. He wasn’t sure what the pirates would have done if Key had been sober. Key didn’t seem very concerned about the prince even though it was obvious they needed him to find whatever the Blue Heaves in the Red was. “Don’t know kid; let’s just go somewhere more comfortable.”

 

                They walked up the stairs, Taemin staying close behind Jonghyun. Jonghyun could feel the prince’s fingernails brushing his shirt every couple of steps as if he wanted to hold onto it like a little kid. How old was the prince anyways? Was he really just a child? They had made it halfway to the Captain’s Cabin when Jonghyun heard the familiar click of heels on the wood planks of the top deck.

 

“There you are, dog, do you know how long I’ve been looking for you?”

 

Jonghyun winced at the high pitched tone Key’s first words of the morning had to him. He didn’t even get to turn to the voice before he got a face full of captain; finger’s waving in his face. Those slanted eyes narrowed as Key stared at Jonghyun, a frown on his bow shaped lips. Jonghyun wanted to grab at his chest as if to take daggers that felt embedded in his skin with the way the captain looked at him.

 

“Master Key, you’re up early,” Jonghyun said and tried to hide is fear with a grin.

 

“I am always up at this time.”

 

“Really? Even when hungover?” Jonghyun asked then thought better of it and took a step back.

               

“Especially when hungover and you should learn that. I expect you where I put you, not wondering around. You’re not a free dog,” the captain said and poked Jonghyun’s nose with his finger.

 

Jonghyun leaned back and raised a brow at the captain. Looking at him again, his eyes were dark and he looked rather rumpled, a few stains on his white jacket and breeches. And, actually, his breath reeked of beer. Jonghyun wiggled his nose at the smell. “You haven’t slept yet, have you?”

 

The captain leaned away and put his hands on his hips trying to look intimidating. Well, he did look intimidating but not as much as usual as he kept swaying with the force to stand up. He shook himself and tried to change his stance to hold himself up better, but tripped with those high heels and Jonghyun moved forward to keep Key from landing face first on the floor.

 

“Hey, careful now, maybe you should go lay down Master Key,” Jonghyun said supporting the captain.

 

Key pushed himself away and straightened out his jacket. “I was heading to my cabin, but then I noticed a certain dog missing. I should have handcuffed you to the head bored.”

 

Jonghyun heard a gasp behind him and remember Taemin was there. “That would have honestly been a pretty bad idea.”

 

“And why is that?” Key asked grabbing Jonghyun by the back of his shirt and leading him toward the cabin. Taemin followed after looking at Jonghyun with wide eyes.

 

“Because the little prince almost got raped last night by your crew; I saved him,” Jonghyun said.

 

Key paused and turned a glare on Jonghyun. “There was no need for you to do that. I don’t remember ever giving the order to keep their hands off him.”

 

“What? No, you can’t let them…” Taemin started only to shrink back.

 

“You, you don’t need to be here, go to the kitchen for breakfast,” Key said to the prince.

 

“You can’t let him go by himself. He’s defenseless,” Jonghyun argued.

 

“Then you take him, I don’t have a use for him right now.”

 

“Then why did you kidnap me!” Taemin yelled and reached out grabbing the captain’s sleeve.

 

Key shook him off. “Simply because I felt like it. I already have what I need from you so what the crew does to you means nothing to me.”

 

Jonghyun watched the captain’s hand move to a handkerchief in his pants pocket as he talked and frowned.

 

“What if you loose it?” Jonghyun asked. “I’m a thief after all, I could take it.”

 

Key glared at him. “You’re threatening me, dog?”

 

“You want that Blue Heavens in the red thing, right? If the prince was still alive you could get it whenever you wanted even if you did loose it. At least give him some protection until you get that stupid treasure, he’s just a kid.”

 

The captain looked away as if considering. “The princes of Jeju are both of age, so they’re not children and I have no reason to protect him. However, perhaps there is someone that would protect him with a price if he wishes to leave this ship with the minimal about of scarring.”

 

He didn’t know why he was happy, but Jonghyun beamed at the captain’s words. “Thanks a lot Master.”

 

“This has nothing to do with you, dog, the prince is the one that should be thankful though I doubt he’d thank me even for this. You can chase him around like a good dog for a day until I’ve spoken with this person, take him to go eat I don’t want to see either of you for a while,” the captain said and with that Jonghyun wrapped an arm around Taemin’s shoulders and led him down to the kitchens.

 

**@};-------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

The first mate made it a habit to keep an eye on their captain particularly after drinking with the crew. The captain use to not partake in the merrymaking, Key was very distant from the crew when Minho  first joined at the age of sixteen. He couldn’t blame Key though for not getting too close to the older men who still saw the young captain as a child and a threat to the ship they loved, the ship that had been without a name since before most of them had even boarded it. It had a name now, and had been fixed, holes covered, wood scraped of barnacles, and polished. The only things Key had left from the previous captain’s rule were the fading red flags. Since being picked up on the open sea by Key Minho  had seen him kill for his place and his chastity with his own crew. He had just been a boy himself, but he had a sword and he had the will to help Key gain the control he wanted on the ship. And perhaps, at the time, he had seen the captain as more than a friend and captain. Such thoughts had long been pushed away as Key was very adamant about the restraints he put on all his relationships. He became the captain’s caretaker instead. To have respect, the crew needed to both fear and love Key. The fear was already there, but the love that was still being worked on. Key had made him first mate, a risky decision as Minho  had even less respect from the ship, but after a year he had gotten the fear and seemed the only one that could keep Key from just killing the crew when they questioned him too much.

 

And Minho  watched Key when he got drunk. That was the main purpose of his becoming first mate. The pirates wanted to have fun with their captain and fun to them was drinking and pillaging and singing off key at the top of their lungs. So Key did the same though much more elegantly than any of the men and those men were touchy. Minho  didn’t know when was the last time he had drank anything but water, with his sober presence at the merrymaking, the crew knew not to take advantage of their young pretty captain. Getting Key to sit in their lap and playful kisses from the younger crew members where as far as he let it go.

 

Dealing with the captain’s hangover was also part of his job. Key never slept until everyone else had passed out. Minho  watched him from a good distance as the captain finally made his way to his cabin calling out the name of that thief like you would call to a dog. Minho  had found it amusing at first, but now he distrusted the thief more than just because he was a thief. He watched over that golden haired prince too much and either he was hoping to make the prince trust him enough to give himself over willing in which Minho  would have more respect for the man who had stuffed pirate’s gold down his trousers and stayed alive than if he was indeed just trying to help the prince in which case he was just an idiot and Minho  could find much smarter dogs for Key to keep.

 

The thief walked up from the lower decks with the prince in tow. Minho  though maybe the thief had had his way with the prince last night, but the prince looked too comfortable. He couldn’t hear what the thief said to Key, but with all the gestures, he figured it was about the prince. Key waved them both away eventually and started for his cabin again. Minho  followed him, stopping the door before it closed.

 

“Key, you should really just throw him overboard.”

 

The captain looked up at Minho  a bit surprised but his face fell telling Minho  he was tired and needed to sleep through his hangover.

 

“Who, the prince?”

 

“No, your dog.”

 

Key sighed and pushed the door opened so Minho  could follow him inside the cabin. “He makes good points at times. It’s been a while since I could do anything I wanted to someone. I have to be nice to the crew now after all.”

 

“He’s not part of the crew,” Minho  pointed out.

 

The captain went to his wardrobe and began to slip his jacket and dirtied clothes off. “And I’m not nice to him.”

 

“You’re giving him the prince as a play toy, that’s much too nice for a dog you’re keeping just to torture,” Minho  said and took the dirty clothes to submerge in the wash bucket the captain kept. Minho  had found Key’s peculiar habit of keeping his clothes clean intriguing at first, but he had come to understand it was more than the captain wanting to look good.

 

“He said he doesn’t want him. Told me to give the prince protection,” Key said and scoffed moving to his bed naked and curled up in the blankets.

 

“You only needed his blood. You have that already.”

 

The captain waved a stained handkerchief in the air. “Yeah I do, doesn’t mean I can’t have more. I thought I’d give him some nightmares. You hate royals, don’t you, that’s why I sent you to kidnap him.”

 

Minho  moved to place a kettle in the fireplace in the captain’s cabin, warming it up to make the tea Key would ask for when he woke back up. “You’re going to let him get raped? I have no interest in getting revenge on children. It’s kings I hate.”

 

Key sat up a bit and turned his dark eyes on Minho. “He’s of age, Minho, not a child at all, but he’s very beautiful, yes?”

 

Minho  nodded. “Of course. If you’re going to let the crew have him then I want my chance with him, too.”

 

Key grinned at him. “I knew you’d say that, you’re into boys after all. Actually, I have a proposition that’ll get my dog to stop barking at me. How about I give the prince to you?”

 

Minho  poked at the fire letting Key’s words sink in. “You’re giving him to me as what, Key?”

 

“Your pet, or sex slave, whatever you wish to do with him. I know it’s been a long time since you’ve had it, the boys on this ship are much too used up for your taste. How about we make him exclusively yours?”

 

Minho  stood and crossed his arms judging his captain. “For how long?”

 

“Until you tire of him, or I decide to give him back to his kingdom.”

 

“So until we get the Blue Heavens in the Red?”

 

Key scooted back beneath his blankets. “Yes Minho, until we get the Blue Heaves in the Red.”

 

**@};----------------------------------------------;{@**

               

Jonghyun kept Taemin close to him as they walked back down to the lower deck intending on the kitchen. There were a few pirates roaming about or doing early morning duty. Jonghyun tried  not to get too close to the ones curled up together passed out and mostly naked and made sure to lead Taemin around any puddles weather they be alcohol or not. The prince clung to his shirt scared and Jonghyun could only sigh. He really wasn’t a child, but he seemed much too innocent. Was this how Jeju raised their princes to be what princes should be, strong beautiful angels of innocence that could charm man out of war and girls into falling in love? Jonghyun didn’t like it much especially considering this prince was also a wizard. How could wizards be innocent? And he seemed like a pretty weak wizard if he had to use such a big catalyst like that staff in order to do any magic. The wizard Jonghyun had slept with only had a necklace and Yifan had gloves. They were much more particle instruments than a heavy gold staff.

 

“Are they?” Taemin asked pointing over to a corner where a younger pirate laid in a torn mess. Jonghyun reached up and covered the prince’s eyes.

 

“Don’t worry about them, they’ll probably be limping around all excited about the ocean by tomorrow.”

 

“But what if – ” the prince started.

 

“You know, prince, even if that kid’s younger than you he’s definitely stronger than you and I’ve seen even them plunder the virtues of mothers and maidens so I wouldn’t worry about them if I was in your position. How old are you anyways?” Jonghyun asked.

 

“Nineteen recently,” Taemin answered.

 

“There’s two of you, what about your older brother?” Jonghyun asked. He figured conversation would allow the prince to pay less attention to whatever after party mess they came across until they got to the kitchens.

 

“Younger brother,” the prince corrected. “He’s eighteen. We’re half brothers.”

 

“How does that work out? Your dad must have gotten his mother pregnant while yours was still alive.”

 

“I’m his consort’s child,” Taemin said. “He meant to get his wife pregnant first, but it didn’t happen like that.”

 

“His consort was a witch then?” Jonghyun asked. He’d never heard of a witch consort.

 

Taemin nodded. “They said she was the most beautiful witch there was. I don’t think she really wanted to be with my father and she died soon after having me.”

 

“If you’re older, that means you’re going to be the king, right?” Jonghyun figured.

 

“No, I’m going to be the royal wizard. My brother’s the heir. You know, he’s probably coming for me, out there somewhere on the sea headed this way.”

 

Jonghyun looked at the prince’s face, eyes far off as if he could see his younger brother captaining a navy ship to come rescue him. He sighed and nodded. “I’m sure he is, I’m sure you’ll be back home sooner than you’ll miss it.”

 

The prince turned with a soft smile to Jonghyun. “Will you help me then? When my brother comes, will you help me get to him.”

 

Jonghyun reached up and touched the soft gold locks of the prince’s head and gave him a sad smile. “I can’t do anything more than what I’ve already done. I’m only a dog after all as long as I’m on this ship.”

 

“If you helped me I’m sure my family would reward you with a better life, riches and whatever you want, you wouldn’t need to steal or be a dog anymore.” The prince’s voice was excited and he looked at Jonghyun with so much hope.

 

“Sorry prince, but that’s not the life I chose. Besides, I’ve never been a dog before, I think it might be fun.”

 

“And you chose to be a thief? Who chooses such a life?” Taemin’s voice sounded angry now, but Jonghyun could only keep his sad smile.

 

“I chose that, it happens and I like it better this way. You wouldn’t understand, you seem like someone that could only ever be a prince.”

 

“I—” the prince began, but Jonghyun grabbed Taemin by the arm and pulled him toward the kitchen door.

 

“Don’t argue, let’s just get some breakfast.”


	6. “Choices aren’t always good or bad, but bad and worse.”

**Chapter 6**

 

**“Choices aren’t always good or bad, but bad and worse.”**

 

Taemin was surprised to be given a room. He had spent the past two days on the ship following the thief around and the one night he had slept it was in the corner of the stairs curled up next to the thief. He wasn’t sure how his family would take to knowing that his safety up until now was all thanks to a thief, they were as bad as pirates in the good man’s eye, but Taemin didn’t think Jonghyun could be all that bad if he was looking after him. His father wouldn’t think that way, he would yell at Taemin first for not being able to take care of him self and then put Jonghyun on his list of criminals along with the pirates to kill on sight. His brother would be more willing to listen, but then again Taemin wasn’t really sure why he wanted to give the thief a good name, he still refused to help him escape.

 

The room was larger than what he would have thought a typical pirate’s cabin would be. There was a bed and Taemin sat then lay on the white sheets with a sigh of comfort. He had been taking naps periodically on the bench in the kitchen all day. It was a decent place to sleep, but not at all comfortable. Though Onew seemed like a good man, the prince did fear the cook would stab him in his sleep and feed him to the pirates if Jonghyun was to leave, or even if Jonghyun was still there. And there wasn’t a lock on the kitchen door, just the large stock room in the back. There was a lock, however, in this room. Taemin wanted to get up and flick it closed, but the bed was much too comfortable and the first mate was still standing outside.

 

It was the first mate that brought Taemin to the room. He had entered the kitchen just as Onew finished up the late night dinner for the pirates and grabbed Taemin by his arm. The prince had looked to Jonghyun for help when he was dragged out of the kitchen and at first Jonghyun seemed he was going to protest, but he paused as if he realized something that Taemin hadn’t yet. The first mate hadn’t brought him to the room at first nor had he said anything to Taemin. He only dragged the prince up to the top deck and made him stand with him as he surveyed the setting up of the table. He wanted to ask if they were having another party, but as the food was brought out, Taemin could tell it was just a feast to get rid of the unused, spoiling foods, and leftover food of the night before, no beer or alcohol seen about. The captain stood at the end of the table barking orders and giving a lecture about the waste of food and so on. The first mate had made a motion for Taemin to stay where he was then went over to the array of food and made a plate. He came back and ate from the plate and Taemin frowned, his stomach growling. He had half expected the first mate to bring him food. He was surprised when he was given the first mate’s half empty plate of food. One glance upwards told him he could eat so he happily did then he was pulled away again.

 

He had been pulled away after that and now he lay curled up in the bed wondering what this meant. Was he going to be treated like the prince he was? He doubted it. Perhaps this was what the captain planned to give him as protection, a room with a lock in the room right under the Captain’s Cabin and not too far from the stairs. He thought there would be a lesser chance of those pirates attempting to rape him again if he was to stay here. Yes, Taemin liked this room.

 

The first mate walked in and Taemin sat up on the bed watching him warily. The tall pirate took a glance outside of the door before closing it and flicking the lock. Taemin frowned. Was the first mate in charge of keeping him safe? That didn’t seem the case when the first mate started to unbutton the small enamel buttons that held his loose white shirt closed.

 

“What…what are you doing?” Taemin asked. “You can’t just undress in other people’s rooms.”

 

The first mate paused then slipped his shirt off and started for his sword belt. “This is my room.”

 

“Then why am I in here?” Taemin started to feel anxious when the first mate pulled his suspenders from his shoulder and moved to the bed, sitting on the corner to take off his boots. Taemin scooted to the edge of the bed.

 

“To make a choice,” the first mate said now with only his breeches on. He turned to Taemin and reached out a hand. The prince slapped it away.

 

“Don’t touch me!”

 

“Was feeding you not enough to get you to trust me? I suppose not, you’ve been here too short of a time,” the first mate said.

 

“What are you talking about, I don’t trust pirates. And what choice?”

 

“You’re smart not to trust pirates,” the first mate said and reached out again, grabbing the front of Taemin’s night shirt. The prince tried to push his arm away, but he was much too scared and could only make red marks on the taunt skin as he was pulled close to the pirate. “I hope you’ll continue to stay smart.”

 

“I’m smarter than you think,” Taemin said. He had a plan to bite or scratch and get away from this man, but the first mate’s response stumped him.

 

“I’ll tell you your choices now. That dog begged Key to cut you some slack and I’m the ‘slack’ he came up with. So I have a proposition for you prince.”

 

“Proposition?” Taemin asked then glared. “I have no need to make deals with pirates. I can’t trust you to keep them.”

 

“First listen and then decide whether trust is an issue. You were almost raped by multiple pirates and you were lucky to get away, but it’ll happen again. You’re a pretty piece of meet to most on this ship and some of them won’t eat you up neatly, they’ll tare you apart. Do you want to risk being killed while having your body penetrated and dirtied unwillingly?”

 

Taemin shivered remembering the touches of the previous night. He had tried hard not to think about it; it was definitely not something he wanted to experience again nor in its full hideous glory. “That depends on my other choices.”

 

“You do have the choice of killing yourself,” the first mate said, “but what’s the point of that when you’re hoping your family will come save you.”

 

Taemin frowned knowing the first mate was right. “So suicide or gang rape, are those my only choices?”

 

“You have one other if you want to leave this ship with the lease amount of scarring, but it will still cost you something.” The first mate moved his hand from where it was gripping Taemin’s shirt down to the edge of the white clothe and started to move under it. Taemin jumped at the feel of those fingertips against his bare stomach and scooted back. He picked up the pillow from behind him and held it in front of him like a shield.

 

“No, I don’t want that.”

 

 “You don’t have a choice,” the first mate said. “I’ll have you tonight. Now, whether you choose to consent or not will see in which hands you fall into the next night and the next night and the next night until Key gets rid of you.”

 

“No, I won’t do it, get away from me,” the prince said and pushed the pillow out more toward the pirate.

 

The first mate grabbed the pillow and tossed it behind him. He moved forward quickly and encased Taemin between his body and the wall behind him. “Be smart prince, there are advantages to being only mine. One man touching you instead of many, and I’m not old or bad looking compared to the others who want you. And you’ll get privileges. Only the captain is above me, I can kill anyone who even tries to touch you.”

 

Taemin shook his head. “I’m a prince; I could never give myself over like that. I have respect for myself.”       

 

The first mate gripped Taemin’s hair and stilled his head making the prince look at him. “You’re on pirate’s water, Prince; respect is earned not given through blood ties. I thought you said you were smarter than I thought. A smart prince would figure out ways to use the opportunities he’s given to his advantage. I thought you’d be more willing to compromise. I’ll have no sympathy if you’re found soiled in a corner of the ship.”

 

Taemin looked at the first mate in horror as he leaned in. Would it really be that bad? Would he end up so scarred up that suicide would be more hopeful than his family rescuing him? He didn’t want to do this, but he wasn’t a child, and there were privileges. What sort of privileges? Taemin moved his hands to the pirate’s shoulders to hold him back. “What sort of privileges?”

 

The first mate looked curious before he grinned. “Walk around safely during the day and at night you’ll be with me anyways, and there will be others as time goes along.”

 

“Will you help me escape if my brother catches up to save me?”

 

The first mate shook his head. “I’m not inclined to do that now, but I do have a weakness for pretty faced boys which is the only reason I’m giving you a choice to say yes or no.”

 

Taemin thought for a minute. He didn’t want to, he really didn’t want to. After Kai was married to a royal princess, he was supposed to be married to any pretty peasant girl that was willing to marry a wizard. He was going to have children with her and live in the castle. He had looked forward to that life, helping his brother rule as well. The first mate was right, though, he needed to be smart. He looked the pirate up and down, strong and well built. Indeed he wasn’t bad looking so at least he wouldn’t be disgusted on top of the feeling of being violated.

               

“Do you know where my staff is?” Taemin asked.

 

The first mate smiled. It was surprising to Taemin, but he got over it when he was pulled down to lie on the bed and hands went under his shirt trying to remove it and touching his stomach. “Of course I do, I have it.”

 

“Stop…stop,” Taemin protested and could only move away when his chest was bare. He covered himself up and glared. “I didn’t consent and I don’t plan to ever. This is all against my will and I will still fight you.”

 

“Of course,” the first mate agreed, “but you did make your choice.”

 

Taemin sighed. “There wasn’t much of a choice to begin with, but I’m not stupid.”

 

“Good to hear, prince, now fight me if you can.”

 

 The first mate reached out for Taemin. The prince tried to jump away from the bed, but his arm was grabbed and he was pulled back pressed under the first mate. He reached up and pounded at the first mate’s shoulders to get him off, kicks his knees into the pirate’s sides. The first mate only growled in frustration and pressed himself down more onto the prince. Taemin gasped then reddened in embarrassment and tried to fight more, scratching at the first mate’s neck as his face descended close to Taemin. The prince turned his head and lips landed on his chin then trailed down his neck. He shivered with fear and the traitorous feelings coursing up his body from the pressure the first mate was putting on his lower half, body between his legs. The pirate licked and sucked at his neck, biting him and Taemin tugged and pulled at his hair. He tried to lift an arm to punch the first mate’s head, but it was grabbed and held in the air.

 

Taemin thought he was stronger than this. Certainly he couldn’t fight off four pirates, but one he should have been able to get away from. But, he had conceded in some form and perhaps that was why his body didn’t have the strength or adrenaline rush he needed. Or maybe it was the traitorous touches of the pirate’s groin pressing against his own untouched one. He was a pure prince, he’d let his brother have that fun not he, he didn’t want to let up so easily. Even if he wasn’t a girl, some things where still important.

 

But, the first mate was right, he needed to be smart.

 

The first mate’s other hand reached down and tried to undo Taemin’s breeches. Taemin cried out with variations of ‘no, no’ and ‘stop, don’t’, but he couldn’t speak anymore when a hand grabbed his length and stroked it making him hard without his consent. He shivered wishing his body wouldn’t react, but he was only human and a man after all. Pleasure was something not easily denied. The prince shivered and closed his eyes, biting his tongue to keep from letting any sound out whether it be protest or acceptance. The first mate finally managed to get his pants off and flipped the prince over.

 

“You’ve gotten awfully quiet now,” the pirate said.

 

Taemin buried his face into the mattress. “Shut up, I don’t want this.”

 

“I know that, so how about you stay still and be good and this will be over much quicker.”

 

The prince wanted to retort back, but he could feel the first mate move down his body and suddenly he froze up and gasped feeling something wet licking between his spread legs. “What are you doing? No, stop that!”

 

It was a tongue and it was _there_ and other then scared, Taemin didn’t know how to feel. He buried his face back into the mattress to calm his breathing as all things a _tongue_ ’ a _pirate’s_ tongue’ violated him down there. When it finally moved away, the prince leaned up to take a deep breath and tried to escape again. The first mate grabbed the back of his blonde hair pulling his head back before smashing it forward into the mattress. Taemin tried to yell, but everything was muffled and then one of his arms were twisted painfully and held against his back. He felt the first mate resettle himself between Taemin’s legs and push a pillow under his hips lifting his hips more into the air. The prince felt embarrassed in this position, vulnerable. Something prodded at his hole and he screamed.

 

“No, don’t you dare you stupid pirate. I hate you!”

 

It pushed in and Taemin was frozen in utter and horrendous pain as something like fire shot up his back. Tears started to leak from his eyes and he let his head fall back onto the bed, shoulders shaking. Why wasn’t the stupid pirate moving or doing something to stop the pain?

 

The first mate shifted and leaned over the prince to whisper into his ear. “My name is Minho; refer to me as such when cursing me. I don’t reply well to being called simply a pirate.”

 

He started to move inside him and Taemin was lost in sobbing over the pain and over everything. It hit him then what he had agreed to and he wanted to take it all back, even when it did start to feel good, Taemin couldn’t make the best of it, he just laid there and let the feeling roll over him quietly wishing he could be deaf for the few minutes the first mate would last so he wouldn’t have to hear the pirate’s pleasure moans. He wanted to go home and then jump from the rocky cliffs outside his window and hope the undercurrents took him somewhere better where he wasn’t a piece of meat or a child that no one believed in.

 

The prince came onto the pillow under him, but he hardly noticed the electric orgasm that rippled through his body, his mind was some place else. He did notice the feeling of viscous liquid emptying inside him and sighed, his body and mind slowly becoming one again, but he was numb and limp. The first mate, this pirate named Minho, moved out of him and rolled to the side bringing Taemin into his arms. The prince ignored him and looked around the room, every corner and every inch of floor and wall.

 

He had his staff and Taemin was going to do everything he could to get it back.

 

**@};---------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun followed the captain around after the first mate had taken Taemin away. He kept quiet and stuffed his hands in his pocket not sure what to do with himself or this nervous queasy feeling in his stomach. He had waited five minutes after Taemin was taken away before going after Key. He had planned to demand exactly what the first mate was going to do with the prince, but he’d lost his courage the moment he saw the captain towering over him with even taller heels. Jonghyun couldn’t understand the practicality of such shoes. Perhaps they helped Key stay stabilized on the moving vessel or they were just for intimidating tactics.

               

It was dark now and the pirates were almost finished with their feast of leftovers and spoiling meat and vegetables. Jonghyun had only been able to steal a few bits of the better meat from the table while following Key on his rounds around the tables and he was still hungry. He hadn’t taken Onew up on any of the food he’d offered him, letting Taemin eat it all. He thought the prince wasn’t use to hunger pains at night that made you want to cry. When almost everything was gone, Key finally moved in and made a plate before passing it to Jonghyun. Jonghyun looked at the captain, at his face then his thin waist made bigger by the layers of coat and vest and look dress shirt and held the plate out to him.

 

“Aren’t you going to eat, Master?”

 

Key crossed his arms and started for the cabin. “I don’t eat on these days. Besides, you’ve been fallowing me around; dogs only do that when they want something. I figured you were hungry.”   

 

Jonghyun poked at the food judging if it was safe to eat or not before throwing it into his mouth and swallowing quickly. “That’s nice of you to let your crew eat.”

 

Key opened the door and started for his bed. “It’s not that, I just hate eating leftovers and that smudge podge of half rotten shit Onew makes of the things going bad.”

 

Jonghyun frowned and stared at his plate before moving over to the bed’s foot board and sitting to eat. “How very generous of you.”

 

“Shut up, dog,” Key said and began to strip himself of his clothes.

 

Jonghyun watched him out of the corner of his eye as he ate. Key’s fingers were long and fine, but not delicate; Jonghyun could see calluses on them. His shoulders were a bit broad, but smooth and small, all lean and hidden muscle. And he was pale, not touched by the harsh sun that reflected off the water’s surface. He really was a wonder, this beautiful pirate captain.

 

Key moved beneath his sheets, covering up and Jonghyun looked away.

 

“You’re not going to tie me up?” Jonghyun asked.

 

“You’re a watch dog tonight; you should go and watch the door. Minho’s otherwise preoccupied, so you get to do it.”

 

“Your first mate usually watches your door? Isn’t it locked?” Jonghyun asked staring at the door and watching the shadows of the pirates walk by.

 

“More than only thieves know how to unlock even the most complicated of locks,” the captain answered.

 

Jonghyun looked back at Key. He was turned to the wall now, but Jonghyun could see the creamy expanse of a shoulder sticking out from the blanket. “What’s Minho  doing anyways?”

 

“The prince,” Key answered.

 

Jonghyun went silent, the queasy feeling building up again. He placed his plate on the floor and leaned his back against the wall and tried to stay awake. He couldn’t save the prince, but maybe he could keep one person safe tonight.

 

**@};------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun was startled awake by excited movement around the cabin. His eyes popped open to see Key quickly pulling a fresh set of clothes on and primping himself in front of his wardrobe mirror. The captain glanced over to him and frowned.

 

“I thought you were already awake, you sleep with your eyes open,” he said.

 

Jonghyun stretched his limbs out then grinned over at Key. “It’s a habit. Someone’s less likely to do you wrong if you look half awake when you’re asleep.”

 

Key rolled his eyes and grabbed his sword hooking it to the sword belt around his waist. “I suppose a guard dog does need that sort of ability if he’s going to fall asleep on the job.”

 

Jonghyun stood. “Sorry, I’ll get a nap during the day so I can stay awake most of the night.”

 

“That won’t be necessary. Where we’re going you can sleep as much as you like.”

 

“Where are we going?” Jonghyun asked approaching the captain. He reached out and grabbed the ends of an undone tie around Key’s neck and started to tie it. The captain widened his eyes before standing still and allowing Jonghyun the privilege of tying the fabric into a bow. He grinned at Jonghyun when he was done.

 

“We’re going somewhere fun, you’ll know when I announce it.”

 

The pirate captain rushed out of the cabin onto the main deck. Jonghyun had to run to catch up still curious how a man could be comfortable in heels like that. They looked dangerous to be moving around quickly in.

 

On the deck, Key raised his hands and clapped them twice. The pirates already at work tending the ship early in the morning stopped and turned to Key. Jonghyun barely caught a glance of Minho  emerging from the stairs, to Taemin insight, to listen to Key.

 

“Alright you ungrateful mutts,” Key said, voice angry before he smiled genuinely at them all, “change of course. We’re going to take ourselves a little break in the place only pirates know.”

 

The crew cheered and started rushing about. Jonghyun looked around curiously before running after Key when he started for the steering wheel.

 

“We’re setting sail for Whore Island!”

 


	7. “To deny or accept will sculpt the outcome.”

**Chapter 7**

               

**“To deny or accept will sculpt the outcome.”**

               

 “So, what exactly is Whore Island?” Jonghyun asked standing beside the captain as he steered the ship.

 

 “Exactly what it sounds like, my dear dog,” Key responded, eyes trained on the horizon of blue water before them.

 

Jonghyun stuffed his hands in his pockets and leaned forward, squinting into the distance. He couldn’t see whatever it was Key was seeing. “So is this a place pirates go to have fun?”

 

“Yes. The men get lonely since women aren’t allowed to come to sea with us.”

 

Jonghyun heard a small scuffle below the steering wheel deck and saw the Minho  guy holding back one of the younger pirates. He frowned and turned to Key. “So, if we were going there today, why’d you give the prince over to your first mate so soon?”

 

Key frowned and turned the steering wheel harshly to the opposite side of where Jonghyun stood. Jonghyun reached out and grabbed the captain’s arm to keep from falling. Key shook him off and stepped away to yell at his pirates.

 

 “Get the sails ready, we’re coming up on it, you know the positions,” he yelled then came back to steering.

 

 “Master Key, you didn’t answer,” Jonghyun said.

 

 “I don’t have to answer you. If you  have such an affinity with the prince then you should have taken him for your own first,” he said angrily.

 

 Jonghyun grinned. “I don’t like wizards.”

 

 The captain lifted a hand and brushed his black overlong bangs back out of his face. “Well, Minho  doesn’t like women.”

 

Jonghyun raised a brow and looked at the tall broad first mate as he walked across the deck to help with the sails. For someone like that to prefer men, Jonghyun would have never thought it. “Really, I’m surprised. And there aren’t any boys for that use on Whore Island?”

 

“Not usually and Minho  had surprisingly high tastes for a pirate. Besides, I gave the prince a break, didn’t I? If he’s solely Minho’s then everyone else risks their life touching him. Except me, I can do anything I want, take anyone’s woman.”

 

“Are you gloating captain?” Jonghyun asked. “Sound like you’ve done it before.”

 

“Of course I have, I’m the captain,” Key said.

 

“You’ve taken Minho’s boys before?”

 

Key glared at Jonghyun and he took a step back, holding his hands up in defense. Had he made the captain angry? What’d he say?

 

“Not boys and not Minho’s,” Key said then turned back to looking across the water.

 

Jonghyun rubbed the back of his head. It felt hot like sunburn was coming on and he wondered if there were shops on this island so he could pick pocket some money and invest in a hat. Or maybe Key would buy his poor dog a treat.

 

 “So you’re excited about going to the island?”

 

Key nodded and turned the wheel sharply again. Jonghyun tilted side ways but managed to keep from grabbing onto the captain again.

 

“Of course, I’m a guy after all.”

 

 “Minho’s a guy, too,” Jonghyun pointed out.

 

“He’s a different type of guy and if you ask him he’ll tell you he’s excited, too. It’s not just a place to have sex with women, it’s like a second home for most of us,” Key explained and his face softened.

 

Jonghyun smiled seeing the far away look in the captain’s eyes. A home. He supposed that would sound nice to people who had never had a good one.

 

“Aren’t you excited to go, dog?” Key asked. He turned his sharp face to Jonghyun, a fine eyebrow raised in question.

 

Jonghyun crossed his arms and nodded. “Indeed, I’ve always wondered what a pirate island looked like.”

 

A ghost of a smiled appeared on the captain’s lips and he turned back to guiding the ship.               

 

“Land ho! Whore Island in sight,” someone yelled from one of the nest like holdings connected to the top of the masts.

 

Jonghyun sat as the complicated maneuver of getting the large vessel onto the island began. All Jonghyun could see were dangerous cliffs, so, though he could do well on a boat, it had been a long time since he’d walked on one in crazy conditions, so he just sat like the good dog he was learning to be and watched at Key turned the steering wheel and yelled commands at his crew.

 

Of course an island that belonged to pirates would be difficult to come by, they needed to keep them hidden so Jonghyun wasn’t surprised by the sharp pointy rocks that protruded out toward them or the couple of boulders they hit along the way. There was probably an easier way inside, like a cave from outside of the protective gates of cliffs, but you risked the navy or other unfriendly pirates seeing your ship. And, Jonghyun did remember what was said about this ship, the one they now called _The Locket_ since he first got on it. It had magic and would stay afloat until the last board was destroyed. So, running into a few boulders here and there weren’t such a big deal, right?

 

“Yah! You there, if this ship gets one scratch on it I’m blaming you. Yes you!” Key yelled.

 

Jonghyun laughed. Perhaps it was if your captain was Key who seemed to prize appearance over everything else.

 

 The waters suddenly calmed and Jonghyun looked up. They were still between the cliffs, but they were smooth now, welcoming. Jonghyun stood and looked forward smiling when he saw the pale gold of sand greeting them. Key moved from the wheel and gestured down for one of his crew to take over. Jonghyun followed the captain down to the main deck. They stood by the ramp  ledge and Jonghyun jumped when he suddenly heard a whistle. He turned to Key just in time to see him slip a small gold whistle back under his shirt attached to a string around his neck where another gold thing hung. He hadn’t noticed the necklace before, but shrugged. There were yells coming from the shore now, dozens of girls coming out from the apartments and shops to greet them along with young children and old crippled men only years away from death, retired crew.

 

Jonghyun smiled sadly at them all. It kind of did look like a family coming out to greet their sons, lovers, fathers, that had been gone so for so long.

 

“Alright dog, your job is to help me get my stuff into a room in our brothel,” Key said and turned.

 

Jonghyun sighed. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

 

**@};-------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

 It was loud inside the brothel bar. Jonghyun would have rather gone to a normal bar, but a look up and down the port of Whore Island told him that this was a normal bar, something he should have gotten just from the name of the place. There were girls, skinny and tall, plump and loud, and young and scared, all sitting on the pirate’s lap just humoring them or moaning as they rode the seamen. Jonghyun sat in a corner of the bar and nursed a beer as he watched the pirates have at it. It was only now getting dark, but most of them had already left with countless whores to catch up on the months of only getting wet via storms at sea. There was a large group singing merrily waiting to later to bed one of the women hanging off them. Jonghyun really couldn’t understand some of the women’s tastes. Where pirates good to ride?  He thought they’d be rough and come too soon. He didn’t particularly have any interest in finding out except maybe Jonghyun would like to find out if a certain pirate would be good _at_ riding.

 

A scream to Jonghyun’s right pulled his attention away from analyzing the mating of pirates and their whores. He turned his head to see the first mate getting up out of his seat. He staggered a bit when he walked as if he had drunk a little too much and grabbed someone’s wrist from behind one of the large posts in the bar. The Minho  guy pulled the person to his chest and Jonghyun saw a mop of gold hair and frowned. The prince was being man handled by the first mate again. Jonghyun had seen it once when they got off the ships. Minho  had helped direct the flow of most everything that needed to be taken off or restored and then gone back to his room to retrieve the prince, pulling him by an arm. Taemin hadn’t been screaming then, but he had been reluctant to come along, feet walking slower and he limped a bit. Jonghyun had hoped the first mate was kind and just pretending that he had taken the prince as his own sex slave, but it seemed luck wasn’t the prince’s forte.

 

There was another scream and Jonghyun saw Taemin break free and start to run. Minho  followed toppling over a chair and pinned the prince to the wall. The prince tried to get away, but Minho  just held him tighter in place. Jonghyun put his mug on the small table in front of him and thought about standing up and helping the kid, but there were hoots and hollers from the pirates close to the little aggressive display and Jonghyun understood that he couldn’t do anything. Taemin’s head turned in his direction, big and brown. Jonghyun only lifted his beer toward him and gestured toward the archway that led to the bedrooms. The prince lowered his head and turned back to the first mate seeming to go almost completely limp. Minho  grabbed his arm and disappeared with the prince.

 

With the departure of their first mate, the pirates began to get rowdy. The captain wasn’t anywhere in sight, so Jonghyun thought it time to retire. He finished off his beer and stood. The moment he stepped around the table, two whores clung to his arm.

 

 “Are you going to bed?” one of them said and brushed back his hair. She was a bit older, Jonghyun could see the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

 

“Would you like a couple of extra pillows?” the other woman asked, one closer to his age.

 

Jonghyun grinned at them both and moved his arms out of their hold and wrapped them around their shoulders instead. “You know ladies, you are both very pretty. How come no one’s picked you up yet?”

 

“We were waiting for you of course,” the older woman said. The younger laughed.

 

Jonghyun pouted his lips at them. “Really now? You two were waiting just for little old me when there were fifty other men just here? There’s still some gathered over there, let them pay you a few in pirate gold.” He pointed to the rough housing singing pirates.

 

The two women made a face and the younger turned back to Jonghyun. “It’s not so much about money, we just like a pretty new face here and there.”

 

 Jonghyun held his head a little higher and smiled. “Well, I might be a pretty face, but you won’t get much of a reputation by sleeping with me. I’m the captain’s dog, lower than his crew at the moment. You wouldn’t want to go rutting with a dog now would you? I even bark at one. Bark, bark, bark.”

 

The two whores laughed and one said, “Now don’t be silly, you’ve still got a man’s body even if you’re a dog.”

 

Jonghyun frowned and looked at the other whore. “You here your sister here? Sounds like she’d do a dog.”

 

 “She’d do anything,” the other whore laughed. “So would I.”

 

Jonghyun nodded his head. “Yes you would, yes some people would do anything if it meant some gold. I know that too well.” He turned to the older woman. “Got any boys about my age, maybe a few inches taller and with lots of pride about them?”

 

The older whore made a face and moved away. “There aren’t any boys your age. There aren’t any boys period anymore, they’ve all been taken up already.”

 

“I could be a boy for a night. I could be _your_ boy,” the younger whore said.

 

Jonghyun took her hand and twirled her, looking her over. She was indeed small. He let her hand go and she stopped twirling a few feet away from him. “Too bad you’re not one. I kind of need some hard dangly bit to get me going. See you girls in the morning.”

 

He listened to them whine as he moved passed them and went in search of the captain. Where was he to sleep on this night? Did he get a room? Jonghyun walked down the hall listening to the moans to see if one was maybe Key’s.

               

“Ah yes. Suck harder! Shit you’re slow! Mnh!”

 

Jonghyun stopped hearing a nagging tone to the moan that seemed familiar. He tried listening to it again then approached a door at the end of the hall that was slightly ajar. He peaked inside and felt something fall into his gut. The captain stood against the wall with a girl on her knees before him. His hands where flat on the wall, his hips moving as the liked into the girl’s mouth and he stared straight up at the ceiling, his eyes opened. Jonghyun wasn’t sure if the captain was in pleasure or pain.

 

“That’s it. You can do it better. Shit!” Key pound his fist against the wall then dragged his nails across it.

 

Jonghyun shivered at the display half turned on and half unusually disgusted. He’d seen women give head before both unwilling, willing, and paid and never felt bile rise in his throat before. Well, perhaps the first time he had tried it, letting a whore’s over painted lips around his halfie, but that was years ago before he realized he was a boy that liked his balls and sticks of sorts. But, he continued to watch Key as he hastily worked his hips into the woman’s mouth until he cursed again.

 

 “Shit, coming, coming. Move!” He twitched and arched off the wall before slumping against it, head forward.

 

“You taste so good, Captain,” the girl said and reached out to climb up the captain’s body.

 

Key reached out and grabbed her dark hair before pushing her away. “Taste? I told you to move away. Spit it out.”

 

The whore scrambled up. Jonghyun could see she was frightened now. “Captain?”

 

Key started for her, reaching out and grabbing her hair again. “Do it, spit it out. Did you swallow? I told you not to. Come on now, throw it up. I want it all out. Stupid girl, throw it up now.” Jonghyun jumped when he saw Key punch the girl in the stomach. She bent forward onto the floor and heaved. Key grabbed her hair again. “Not here, out, out. Do it out there.” He started pushing the girl to the door and kicked her out. She stumbled past Jonghyun, a hand over her mouth and Jonghyun cringed seeing a mixture of semen and acid tainted liquid dribbling from between her fingers.

 

The captain sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The turned to go back in and spotted Jonghyun. “Oh, the dog’s here.”

 

Jonghyun grinned at him. “Did you really have to punch her?”

 

Key walked back in and pushed the door more open in invitation to Jonghyun. “I hate it when they get it into their mouths. Shut the door after you.”

 

Jonghyun walked in with careful steps and tried to shut the door quietly before standing by it. He tried not to look at the captain as he began to undress. “Then why don’t you just put it in the other end?”

 

Key glanced over at Jonghyun before going back to undressing. “I don’t want to get them pregnant. I’m not having any bastard children. I have no time to stay home and play dad.”

 

 “There’s two holes back there,” Jonghyun pointed out.

 

Key laughed. “Might as well have a boy then.”

 

Jonghyun traced the door frame. “Then why don’t you?”

 

There was silence then until Jonghyun heard the creak of the bed as the captain climbed into it. “Just stand guard, watch dog.”

 

Jonghyun sighed and slid to the floor by the door, eyes closed.

 

“Do you have any?” The captain’s voice was quiet when he asked.

 

“Any what? Kids?” Jonghyun laughed. “Definitely not.”

 

 “Hmm,” Key’s sheets shifted, “so I was right about you then. You like boys.”

 

Jonghyun opened his eyes and outlined the captain’s pale shoulder sticking out from the sheet. “Something like that.”

 

**@};----------------------------------------;{@**

 

“Let go of me!” Taemin screamed as he was pulled into one of the empty rooms in the brothel.

 

 “Shut up!” the first mate yelled. He let go of the prince to close and lock the door then rounded on him and backed him up into a wall. The prince flattened himself against it and looked around Minho  for a way to escape. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay quiet and go along with it. I’m half drunk and I can be aggressive like that.”

 

The prince moved his eyes to meet the first mate’s, studying the big dark pools as the wavered, misted over with lust and alcohol. Taemin scratched at the wall and shifted. Minho  moved a hand to his throat, not squeezing, but pinning him to the wall more.

 

“I don’t drink often, so you better stop moving.”

 

Taemin stilled and glared at the pirate. “Let me go.”

 

 “No,” Minho  said and moved his hand from Taemin’s neck to grab at the scruff of his night shirt and throw him on the bed. “Ever pirate here expects to hear moans from you, prince. Whether that be in pain or pleasure, they don’t care. The first time is rough, right? I left you alone while we were getting here now I’m going to make sure they know you’re mine.”

 

The first mate began to unbutton his shirt with quick fingers as he approached the bed. Taemin looked around him for something to ward the other off. He had barely left the first mate’s cabin after that night, it was more impossible to walk than it had been on his first day on the ship and it hurt, a stinging pain that came in short waves down his back and tailbone. He saw the two pillows at the front of the bed and grabbed one to use like a shield much like the first day. It wouldn’t do him much use, but at least it was something, maybe it could give him enough time to get a punch in which would be useful as long as he didn’t break a finger while trying.

 

Minho  kneeled onto the bed and ripped the pillow away before the prince could even push it into his face in an attempt to smother the first mate. He grabbed Taemin’s wrist and yanked the prince to him, there faces only centimeters apart. The prince moved his tongue around in his mouth, collecting saliva. The first mate gripped his wrist harder.

 

“Spit on me and I’ll gag you,” the first mate threatened.

 

Taemin swallowed. “I thought you wanted them to hear me moan.”

 

Minho  smirked. “I’ll gag you with my penis, Prince.”

 

Taemin swallowed again.

 

The first mate loosened his grip on Taemin’s wrist and reached out, lifting the prince’s shirt up. Taemin tried to pull away from him. “Let me go!”

 

“Only if you’ll lay down and be a good boy.” Minho  caressed the prince’s stomach and Taemin tried not to shiver at ht cold hand on his warm stomach.

 

“I’ll never do that,” Taemin said. They were on an island, the realization finally got to Taemin. There were other places to run that wasn’t a ship. Certainly it was a small island, but it was better than nothing. He picked up his other fist and hurled it at Minho  only to have his arm caught at the elbow and his punch fall short.

 

The first mate glared at Taemin. “You’re funny, but I’m not in the mood for jokes.”

 

Suddenly, Taemin was twisted around on the bed. He could feel Minho  lifting up his shirt and tried to reach back to grab at his hair, scratch his skin, do something. He froze when he heard a tear then winced his pain when both his arms were pulled behind his back and fabric tied around them tight. The first mate grabbed Taemin’s arm and turned him around again. Taemin arched a bit, his hands trapped beneath him uncomfortable. He glared and started to kick at Minho  with long legs.

 

“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! Untie me!”

 

Minho  grabbed both of Taemin’s legs and spread them, nestling himself between then and started to push his already very obvious hard on against Taemin’s crotch. The prince gasped and looked away biting his lip.

 

“Your body’s a lot more honest this time,” Minho  said and touched the bare skin at Taemin’s stomach and sides, the area he’d ripped away to make a makeshift tie for Taemin’s hands. The prince shivered and shook his head. “Certainly looks that way, Prince.”

 

The first mate’s hand went to Taemin’s breeched and  made quick work of them. He only got one kick in before Minho  was again settled between his legs, his own erection free from his pants and brushing against Taemin’s. The prince’s fingers curled together as he tried to keep any pleasure away. He didn’t want to get hard off this, but he had an innocent body until the other night, rarely even touched by his own hand as sex and pleasure was something talked more to his younger brother as he was to produce the heir. But, everything was hot and only more and more blood rushed down his body and made it hotter and a small whine of what he hoped sounded like protest escaped him.

 

“You muffled yourself last time,” the first mate said. “I’ll have to keep you facing me so I can see you try not to enjoy it and hear every little sound that escapes them.”

 

Taemin shook his head and turned it, lifting his shoulder to try to press his mouth against it for something to keep him quiet especially when wet fingers suddenly prodded at his hole and his legs squirmed on the bed in a mixtures of attempts to kick the first mate and just from plain being uncomfortable.  There was a sudden rush up his body from whatever what stuff Minho  had put on his fingers. The prince could only guess it was some kind of special lubricant the whores here used to make sure they could at least try to enjoy every man that bought them. Taemin bit his lips as it made tingles cascade up his body.

 

“That’s it,” the first mate said.

 

Taemin yelped when he was suddenly pulled up and seated not only in the first mate’s lap but also penetrated by the hot throbbing thick flesh. His body shook and a painful groan escaped his lips. He unconsciously leaned his head forward onto the first mate’s shoulder to steady himself. Hands moved to place themselves on his hips, softly touching the flesh there making them feel hot. Just as the pain ebbed and Taemin began to regain himself Minho thrust upwards. The prince felt himself jerk up with the motion, head coming off from Minho’s shoulder. It came again, jerked up, and Taemin could feel it moving, drilling hard and further into him than last time and he swallowed hard. The first mate did it again and again and Taemin swallowed hard getting lost every time. He wanted to regain himself, to yell and fight.

 

“St-Stop,” he muttered.

 

The first mate moved his hands from Taemin’s hips to his bottom, kneading the firm flesh and spreading him more to go in deeper. “No.”

 

 “Mnnh…” Taemin’s eyes flashed open surprised by the sound he made. It happened again as Minho’s member came close to brushing something inside Taemin.

 

“That’s right, moan, Prince,” Minho  said.

 

Taemin shook his head and bit his tongue. He wished his hands were free so he could rack his nails down Minho’s broad chest, bloody it up, scratch in his family’s emblem, and make him feel pain and embarrassment. A mouth went to Taemin’s ear nibbling and sucking on his lobe and Taemin kept his eyes pressed shut, his body unconsciously squeezing itself in an attempt to get smaller but he only managed to tighten around Minho’s length and create more friction. The pirate moaned.

 

“No,” Taemin said.

 

“Yes.” Minho  sucked his ear again and Taemin couldn’t help his reaction, squeezing around him. His stomach started to pool and Taemin shook his head from side to side making Minho  stop biting his ear.

 

“Prince.” A face suddenly grabbed Taemin’s chin and tilted it up. The pirate stopped moving inside him. Taemin didn’t want to look, but he opened his eyes anyways feeling that and met Minho’s serious, but still lust filled eyes. “If you want this over sooner, you’ll move with me and you’ll moan.”

 

“No!” Taemin said and tried to move off Minho’s lap only to be met with a thrust that got close to that place again.

 

“I thought you were smart. Don’t you want your staff?” The first mate thrust up again and Taemin gasped.

 

Yes, he did want his staff, but would it really cost him this, to show pleasure in these things. He agreed that he would rather have one pirate drilling his bottom ruthlessly instead of a gang of them, but did he really have to act like he liked it? Did he have to give himself over to animalistic pleasures? He was a prince.

 

He was a wizard.

 

“I want…my staff,” Taemin sand and shifted a bit. He didn’t know how to do this. He laid his head forward onto the first mate’s shoulder and moved his hips. If he could make the pirate come faster, would he be done for the night? He moved his hips a bit more.

 

“That’s right,” Minho  said and started thrusting again. “And moan.”

 

Taemin shook his head. The first mate thrust harder and higher and finally grazed that spot he’d been closed to. The prince arched back seeing white for a second and heard the most lewd sound that had blessed his ears since arriving in the brothel, a sound he could only deduct as his own moan and it made him flush in embarrassment, but he continued to move his hips. He wanted it over.

 

“Yes,” Minho  said, “it sounds good. Did it feel good?”

 

The prince only let a moan out. He refused to talk, but if the first mate wanted moans, he’d get moans as long as Taemin got his staff.

                


	8. “Family bonds are strong, but stronger are those made from the trust of strangers.”

**Chapter 8**       

 

**“Family bonds are strong, but stronger are those made from the trust of strangers.”**

 

It had been months since Kai had last stepped foot onto a ship. He had gone with the head of their navy on a cruise around Jeju and a few small neighboring islands of nomadic people that were fine with whatever restrictions Jeju put on their fishing regime. It had been a fun trip and he had come home to be wrapped in the arms of his excited elder brother.

 

Taemin. The crowned prince loved and missed his older half brother. Every morning when he woke up, he could feel the burden of Taemin’s kidnapping weighing down his shoulders. It was his fault after all. He should have listened to his brother when he said not to leave him alone. Perhaps the wizard prince wasn’t having premonitions, but just his natural instinct telling him that he was being targeted. If there was anything Kai trusted it was instinct. He had only been down the hall even when it happened and Kai had stood there with fear. He had reasoned that he was the younger brother after all and even if he was the stronger and taller of the two, the one taught about war and government, it was Taemin that was the pillar that supported him and so he had started crumbling the moment someone snatched that pillar away.

 

Kai sat at the table in the captain’s cabin of the navy’s finest ship handed over to him for the time being as they set sail in pursuit of his brother’s kidnappers. It wasn’t much of an excuse though, he was to be the next king and should support himself or find a wife. He needed Taemin back, it had almost been a week and Kai could only imagine the horrible things that had been done to his elder brother. Taemin was beautiful. At moments, Kai almost forgot the other was a man much less his blood relation when donned with the wizard’s clothing. And his fair hair and pale skin only added to the appearance. Sometimes Kai felt jealous of Taemin’s looks thinking him much more fit to the image of a royal. Kai was all dark even so far as to have inherited a recessive trait of paled tanned skin, darker compared to any royal in the castle. The peasants liked it though as they were tanned from their work in the sun and it made them feel as if their future king was closer to them.

 

It was something Kai had grown accustomed to with much of Taemin’s praise. But, Taemin wasn’t here to give him pep talks anymore. He wasn’t here to tell Kai that he would indeed succeed in his quest because his quest was to find Taemin. Where oh where was his dear brother?

 

The cabin’s door suddenly flew opened and the ships captaining navy man walked in with rolls of paper under his arm. Kai sighed and sat back in his chair to give room for the captain to spread the sheets.

 

“Your Highness,” the man said and spread a map before Kai marked in many places. The prince tried to make sense of the markings, but they weren’t the typical ones he had studied not that Kai had studied much about the symbols pertained to tracking down pirates.

 

“What is all this, Suho?” Kai asked turning to look at the navy captain’s face. He was a soft looking man, milky in complexion though always out at sea where the sun was bright and reflected off the water’s surface. A shorter man, too, so Kai stayed seated as the captain began to explain.

 

“We’ve been trying to track down some of our spies and we finally got word of a pirate ship with pink sails,” Suho said.

 

“I said red sails,” Kai said. “What ships would have pink sails?”

 

The navy captain frowned before waving that remark off. “Perhaps they’re faded, but it’s the closest we’ve come to finding his Highness Prince Taemin. It’s a ship called _The Locket_ run by a very young pirate who won the ship over eight years ago.”

 

Kai looked at the man curiously. “By young you mean in his thirties?”

 

Suho shook his head. “Not at all your highness. Only a few years your senior.”

 

Kai reached out and traced the drawn lines on the map. “That’s quite impressive. Do we know why they would want my brother?”

 

 “There were many speculations. The only thing we can guess as of right now has to do with the fact Prince Taemin is a wizard and they may be in search of a treasure of sorts so his powers could be helpful.”

 

“My brother’s powers aren’t very controlled yet,” Kai pointed out. “He would probably destroy them before he could help them even if he didn’t mean to.”

 

“That’s true as well, but not something most people outside of the castle know.” Suho grinned and Kai responded to the captain with a smirk.

 

“You’re thinking Taemin will do your guys’ work for you? Kill them all. You do know he could kill himself in the process and us if we got too close?”

 

Suho frowned and went back to the map. “Indeed, but we’ll hope it doesn’t come to that and if it is, that we’ve just been underestimating your brother.”

 

Kai sighed and turned away for a moment. “Every underestimates Taemin.”

 

“Your Highness, forgive my words, but isn’t better to be underestimated then to always try and reach a point everyone expects you to? You would know that, wouldn’t you?”

 

Kai only glanced at the navy captain before waving his comment off. “I didn’t ask for you to comment, just continue if there’s more.”

 

“Yes, yes, see here.” Suho pointed to a large X on the map. “This is where we’ve estimated they’re headed.”

 

Kai looked at it curiously, an X, miles away from where they were now headed north. It was south placed in between the Japanese islands and the expansive land of China. “I’ve never been to this part of the sea. Isn’t it dangerous there?”

 

Suho nodded and curved his finger around the X on either side. “Usually ships will travel close to the banks of one of the two countries here if they’re going south, not in the middle of the passage. It has been nicknamed the Mermaid Sea.”

 

“Mermaids?” Kai asked an eyebrow raised. “Certainly not; there must just be a pirate, maybe a witch pirate there. Do many ships come up destroyed there?”

 

“Don’t know, your highness, just the ships that go around tend to find dead bodies with the air eaten out of them or the heads of men. It’s said mermaids love human flesh.”

 

“They eat it?” Kai asked.

 

Suho rolled up the maps and shrugged. “Maybe not, there are different meanings to the word love.”

 

Kai stood as well. “I suppose I should make the announcement to set course south?”

 

 “If you would your highness.”

 

The prince stretched and looked up at the ceiling of the cabin. “If that’s where my brother’s head then let’s get to it.”

 

**@};---------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun watched from the ship railing as the pirates began to board the ship, loads of previsions carried on their up the ramps or straight into the ship’s holdings below. There were more pirates bustling about or so the thief thought. He had collected three buckets of washing water as Key had gave the command that everyone’s clothes would be washed now that they had a new second set provided by the women of the island. With the number Jonghyun was counting, he figured he would be stretching the water with a forth bucket even then. Maybe Key had picked up some recruits among the boys. It wasn’t unusual for a pirate to die from a wound, disease, or just fall overboard and get eaten by a shark or another monster of the deep. Jonghyun moved away and headed down to the kitchen to ask Onew for another bucket.

 

“Hey Chef, you got another bucket I can use?” Jonghyun called as he pushed the door of the kitchen opened. He paused with his hand on the door when he saw the cook nestled between the thighs of a boy (one Jonghyun had seen flirting with the other pirates that wasn’t much younger than Jonghyun) sitting on the metal table devouring his neck and naked chest. He cleared his throat to get Onew’s attention.

 

The cook looked up from snacking and his eyes widened seeing Jonghyun. “Oh, Jonghyun, can I help you?”

 

 “A bucket,” Jonghyun said and made a cleaning gesture with his hands.

 

“It’s in the backroom,” Onew said. The boy slid his hands along Onew’s chest, slipping the shirt away. Jonghyun caught a glimpsed of a few thin white scars on the cook’s chest. “You can get it, but you’ll have to stay back there until I’m done here.”

 

“Yeah, I’ll just get a snack while I’m at it,” Jonghyun said and quickly moved around the silver table and into the backroom of the kitchen.

 

The hanging bloody meat wasn’t as bad as the first time; most of it was freshly killed that morning. Jonghyun was impressed by how the pirates on this ship ate. Key kept them well even if he wasn’t particularly nice to them. At the sound of loud moaning, Jonghyun started through the hanging meant in search of a bucket. There was a large one in the very back and Jonghyun flipped it upside down and took a seat on it. He decided to give them five minutes. It would take ten for him to get the fresh water from the fountain behind yesterday’s brother and back on the ship and it was thirty minutes until they were scheduled to head back out to sea. Five was plenty enough for the cook and his boy to finish.

 

Jonghyun looked around. There were shelves on this end of the backroom and a salted cut of preserved meat hung near Jonghyun. He stood and looked for a knife finding one buried into a block of old cheese. He sliced off a piece of the salted what seemed to be pork and cut off some of the cheese as well before putting the knife back. Jonghyun sat back down on the bucket and nibbled on the ham and cheese breadless sandwich he had created for himself.

 

A couple knocks on the door and Jonghyun figured that was the indication they were done. Jonghyun grabbed the bucket and left the backroom.

 

Onew greeted him with a smile like a boy who had been caught doing something embarrassing. “Sorry you had to walk in on that.”

 

Jonghyun shrugged. “If you like it, go ahead, just not where you cook, okay.”

 

“Sorry, we got carried away. We just wanted to celebrate.

 

Jonghyun looked at the cook curiously. “Celebrate what?”

 

Onew grinned and moved over to a large tuna he had probably been about to prepare before getting the news. “Our woman said she was pregnant.”

 

“Our?” Jonghyun asked.

 

The cook nodded. “That boy, he’s my boy. Sometimes he plays around with the others, I don’t have as much power to keep them off him, but he’s my boy and we share a whore here, she’s exclusively ours.”

 

“And she’s pregnant?” Jonghyun asked. “Is that a good thing?”

 

Onew nodded and slammed his knife through the tuna’s neck slicing its head off. “It means I get to be a father again. It’s our second, we have a daughter already with another whore, but she got married to a merchant.”

 

“So you have a girl?” Jonghyun asked finding the thought strange. “I do, she’s a pretty little thing, they stay on an island a little ways from here were merchant ships go. I see her every few months.”

 

“Is she yours or your boys?”

 

Onew chuckled. “The girl is definitely mine. She’s three. I’ve only had a boy after her. I don’t know who’s this one is. I hope it’s a boy though.”

 

Jonghyun caught the sight of a frown on Onew’s face as he started to slice the fish up. “Why?”

 

“I use to be scared for my daughter, but luckily her mother found a husband who would take them so now she won’t have to grow up to be a whore. This one won’t be so lucky so I hope it’s a boy that way at least they can be a pirate or catch a ride on a ship somewhere else to be what they want to be.”

 

“Aren’t the boys made into whores here too?” Jonghyun asked. He was wasting time, but he hadn’t gotten much of it to talk to the cook before without the prince there, too, and there were things Jonghyun couldn’t say in the prince’s presence.

 

Onew laughed. “I don’t think he’d be good looking enough. My boy and I are fair enough, but have you seen his mother? She’s older, and the only thing good on her are her,” the cook made a cupping motion in front of his chest then went back to cutting. “No, only the good looking ones are encouraged to do that. You’d have to look like that prince or the captain.”

 

“Key?” Jonghyun asked. Something cold washed over him at the thought that the captain might have been a boy prostitute, but he remembered he had also taken over as captain at fourteen.

 

“Hey, puppy, you’re thinking too much.” The cook waved his knife at Jonghyun and the thief snapped back. “I definitely said too much, but it’s not what you’re thinking so don’t worry about it. Why don’t you go to your master and start up on those clothes. You need a bar of soap?”

 

Jonghyun gave the cook a sheepish grin. “Yeah, soap would be good.”

 

Onew reached under his table and pulled out a pale colored bar and threw it at Jonghyun. “Careful not to drop that, doggy, even if Captain thinks you might like it.”

 

Jonghyun caught the soap barely then looked at Onew with wide eyes. “How’d you find out?”

 

“Captain came down here to nag, says you like boys. You should feel lucky he lets you stay in his room from now on.”

 

Jonghyun started for the door. Key had let him stay in the room last night just fine. “Why’s that?”

 

Onew just threw his knife barely missing Jonghyun’s head and the thief hurried to gather water before they set sail again.

 

**@};-----------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

“You having fun there dog?”

               

Jonghyun looked up from his washing to see Key standing in front of his piles of wet cleaned clothes. He stood, throwing down the shirt he had been washing into the murky brown soapy water of his fourth pail. He tried to greet the captain, but his voice was muffled by the scarf he’d found about and washed first when he realized that a pile of month long worn pirate clothes smelled worse than every garbage filled back alley Jonghyun had ever been forced to sleep a night in. He untied the scarf and threw it over his shoulder before reaching up and stretching.

 

“Of course I am. Dogs love water.”

 

Key kicked one of the buckets. “Particularly dirty water.”

 

Jonghyun shrugged. “Better dirty water than dirty clothes. How do they get so dirty anyways? It reeks and my back aches scrubbing these things.”

 

 “They’re pirates, dog, what don’t they do to get them dirty?”

 

Jonghyun crouched back down and submerged his hands in the dirty water. “You’re a pirate, too, and you’re cleaner than most royals.”

 

“I’m a captain,” Key said and kicked Jonghyun’s bucket making specks of the dirty water stain the rolled up cuffs of his sleeves.

 

Jonghyun glowered but didn’t say more. He continued to wash the pirate shirt he was on, a pale tattered thing that looked more like rags. It was already the afternoon. Key hadn’t spoken to him more than commands since the previous night. Onew’s words were odd to him. Why wouldn’t Key let him stay in his cabin just because he fancied boys? Minho  seemed to fancy them, eve Onew and half Key’s crew. Perhaps Key trusted Minho enough despite that not to do anything while he was asleep and knew Minho  could protect him from the others. The captain of the faded red sails was truly beautiful. It was weird, Jonghyun decided, because there was no insurance that as a thief, Jonghyun wouldn’t try to steal something much more precious to the pirates than their gold.

 

“Hey, dog, you’re looking a little dark in the face.”

 

Jonghyun looked up only to have his eyes covered by the brim of a hat. “What’s this?”

 

“I won’t allow my dog to look like a mangy mutt so you’re going to wear a hat from now on.”

 

Jonghyun removed the hat and grinned at the simple straw construction before placing it back on his head. “Thanks Master.”

 

Key put his hands on his hips and stood straighter, balanced on those tall heels. “It’s not a present so don’t thank me. Suntans aren’t appealing to me and as my slave you become an extension of me. Keep that in mind.”

 

“I will, Master Key,” Jonghyun promised. He was truly overjoyed with the hat having forgotten to request it previously whole on the island. They had only been there not even all of two days and most of that Jonghyun hadn’t known where Key was and he didn’t want to get lost looking for a shop.

 

Jonghyun started to wash the shirt again, throwing it into the piles of clean ones when it seemed scrubbing it was only turning it more into barely attached scraps and less into a clean shirt. Jonghyun would have thought Key would have sauntered off by now, but the captain dawdled about in front of Jonghyun until the thief looked up at him again.

 

“We’re headed to the Mermaid Sea,” the captain said.

 

“Is that where your jewel is, the Blue Heavens whatever?” Jonghyun asked just dumping in the rest of the clothes in the bucket and letting them soak.

 

“No, but we have to go there first.”

 

“Is it as dangerous as they say?” Jonghyun wiggled his fingers at the captain. “Do the mermaids really seduce the men then drag there bodies down to the deep to eat them?”

 

Key shrugged. “Never been there, though pirates aren’t afraid of that kind of thing and you better not go around spreading rumors to the crew. They just know we’re headed South for now, I don’t want the ones that call themselves pirates jumping board from fear until they can be used as bait.”

 

Jonghyun frowned and joked. “You’re horrible.”

 

“I’m the pirate captain of a notorious ship,” Key corrected.

 

“Shouldn’t you be telling your cruel dictator stories to your first mate?” Jonghyun asked as he started to wring out the shirts from the bucket. He caught Key throwing a glance to the stairs down to the lower decks.

 

“He’s currently preoccupied with his own slave.”

 

Jonghyun chuckled and moved over to the captain. It had been a while since he had seen the two converse, ever since Minho  grabbed the prince from the kitchen. The thief felt somewhat thankful for the situation as he moved over to the captain and leaned up the height difference mostly made by the pirates heels, and squished his cheeks together making his pink bow lips pout out more. “Aw, your friend’s too busy loving up the pretty prince so you came to talk to your poor doggy instead. You’re feeling lonely, how cute.”

 

Key slapped his hand away hard. Jonghyun stumbled back kicking over two of the buckets. Dirty water splashed across the floor and Jonghyun cradled his wrist against his chest.

 

“Don’t touch me!”

 

 Jonghyun held his other hand up in defense. “Sorry, it was just cute.”

 

Key approached Jonghyun and grabbed his collar. He leaned down almost in the thief’s face. “I’m not cute; I’m the elegant embodiment of fear who sails the ship with the red sails, _The Locket_.”

 

“They’re pink,” Jonghyun said. Key’s dark orbs stared down at him menacingly, but oddly enough, Jonghyun couldn’t muster fear staring into those swirling black eyes. This close up he found them rather romantic, more like the night sky and it’s far off cosmos, than the sea and the dangerous monsters it held. He rather liked them this close.

 

“Say that again and I’ll make your next job give them a dye job with your own blood.” The captain let Jonghyun go and turned on his heels. Jonghyun watched him, an out of place smile on his lips.


	9. “When the water is stirred there is a storm. The same goes for emotions.”

**Chapter 9**

 

**“When the water is stirred there is a storm. The same goes for emotions.”**

 

The reached the Mermaid Sea at night. Jonghyun had pondered over it and the captain’s attitude toward him as he went about handing the clothes back to the pirates who slipped their new clothes off and old ones on for the most part telling Jonghyun the new garments were too stiff and itchy and that he should do something about it. Jonghyun collected the new clothes without argument, but had no intention of doing what the pirates asked. He had a feeling that if he addressed Key about it, he might just say to put more starch in the shirts and add flees to the pants. He found an empty chest in the back room of the kitchen and dumped them inside figuring the pirates wouldn’t miss the clothes until the rags they were wearing now were less than rags.

 

Jonghyun left the kitchen and started back to the stairs, but stopped hearing a whine and murmuring. He back tracked until he found what resembled a hall and walked down it stopping when he saw something glinting gold in the dark. Something was moving, two things, but Jonghyun couldn’t tell what they were and moved closer.

 

“Let me go, I don’t want to.”

 

“You complain too much. You’re a guy, too.”

 

“It hurts, I’m sore. No!”

 

Flapping sound reached Jonghyun’s ears and his eyes widened. He hadn’t expected to run into the prince and first mate when they were in the middle of _that_. The prince’s whimpers were soft, but they caused something in Jonghyun to stir. Jonghyun moved forward in the dark hating how the wizard prince brought back all the morals he had tossed away when he became a thief.

 

“Hey, can’t you do that somewhere else?” Jonghyun reached out and touched the first mate’s shoulder.

 

Minho  growled and whipped around with a fist flying at Jonghyun’s face. Jonghyun stumbled back holding his cheek that felt sticky wet and bruised. He hadn’t really thought about how being on a pirate ship would leave him battered eventually, He already had a sore wrist. Today wasn’t his day.

 

“This isn’t any of your business, thief,” said Minho  and Jonghyun could feel his eyes glaring at him in the dark.

 

“Couldn’t you have hit me with the other hands? That’s just gross.” He made a face as he wiped his cheek. “And it is my business when my Master gets lonely because the only one he trusts on this ship is off terrorizing a pretty blonde prince.”

 

“Key?” Minho  said. Taemin started to inch away, the sound of his undone belt clicking giving him away. The first mate reached out and grabbed him, pulling the prince into his chest. “You’ve really gotten into this dog position haven’t you, thief?”

 

“It’s Jonghyun,” Jonghyun said. “Well, I’ve never been a dog before. I’ve been other things, but never a dog, thought I’d tried to be good at it.”

 

“I think you should stick with being a dog, you’re a terrible thief,” Minho  said and started to move away from Jonghyun dragging Taemin with him. The prince murmured pleas for Minho  to not hold his arm so tight, to let him walk on his own, to slow down. Jonghyun followed.

 

“I might not steal the best stuff, but I’ve stolen some interesting things,” Jonghyun said. “Why don’t you let him go for right now, we’re already on the edge of the Mermaid Sea, at least I’m guessing that if all that floating wreckage out there is any indication.”

 

They were at the stairs now and Minho  paused, pushing Taemin up them in front of him. Jonghyun could only just make out their faces now with the dim candlelight that lit the stairway. “He really steered to the Mermaid Sea?”

 

Jonghyun nodded. After leaving him and his laundry, Key had gone up to take over the steering wheel and hadn’t come down since. He had waved off any of the pirates that asked him why they were headed south and Jonghyun could see them getting nervous when Key didn’t take the usual path closer to China or the Japanese islands, but kept straight in the middle.

 

Minho  moved around Taemin and pushed the prince at Jonghyun. “Watch him, I have to go round up bait.”

 

“Bait? What do you mean bait?” Jonghyun asked, but the first mate was already out of sight. He looked down at Taemin and smiled nervously at him. “Hey Prince.”

 

The prince grabbed at Jonghyun’s shirt. “I want to sit down.”

 

“Let’s get up top first.” He took up Minho’s pervious position pushing the prince up the stairs. Once up on deck, Jonghyun could see that the prince limped heavily and felt a little bad for him. He had gotten the feeling from Minho  that he wasn’t necessarily a rough person, and he hadn’t really seen anything more than light bruising around Taemin’s wrists from restraints, so he didn’t think he necessarily treated the prince bad, just had an insatiable desire for the wizard’s body, unluckily.

 

Jonghyun led Taemin over to some crates near the captain’s cabin and looked around. Most of the pirates were up here and they all seemed wary. It was almost certain that they knew where they were headed now, but didn’t have the courage to speak up about it yet. Minho  was up on the steering deck getting whispered instructions from Key, eyes traveling around the pirates at work probably picking out who would try to jump or chicken out and those they would use for bait. At least that’s what Jonghyun supposed they meant was bait. He sat closer to Taemin and tried to appear more as a guard dog. He had heard stories of the Mermaid Sea, beautiful women, and maybe men too, appearing out of the water and wreckage trying to lure a pirate down to them. He wasn’t really sure what they did to them, eat them or not, but he knew they went under and came back in only pieces if they did at all. Jonghyun didn’t much fancy swimming, he wasn’t a retriever; he was more like those European Doberman dogs or one of the yippy ones that pretended to be a guard dog. Yeah, that sounded about right.

 

Twenty or thirty minutes passed, Jonghyun could feel the air on the ship getting more tense and suddenly the ship rocked hard like it would in a storm. One of the boys spoke up.

 

“Captain, I think we should turn around, we’ve drifted too far into the Mermaid Sea.”

 

“We’re not drifting,” Key said, voice loud and clear across the ship. “I’m driving us straight through.”

 

There was sudden uproar and Jonghyun pushed himself against Taemin as the pirates started past them to get at Key, trying to climb up to the steering deck. Minho  pulled out his sword.

 

“You will all stop right there or I’ll silence you myself. The captain’s orders are the captain’s orders, you do as he wishes,” he said.

 

The pirates settled, down, but with grimaces and glances of fear. The ship rocked more and someone screamed. Key laughed.

 

“We’re going to catch us a mermaid, boys. The Blue Heaves in the Red requires it of us to get the purity sack of a mermaid.”

 

“For the treasure?” someone asked and others seemed to light up at the information getting in the game. The ship rocked more and Jonghyun felt Taemin cling to him instead.

 

“Mermaids, don’t they eat men that travel through their waters?” Taemin asked.

 

“Don’t know, but they can’t possibly eat us all, there’s too many of us. Relax for now, Minho  won’t let you get thrown to them, he fancies you too much and Key won’t want to make his first mate sad.”

 

The prince made a disgusted face at the mention of his relation to the first mate and pulled away. The ship’s rocking became insistent and Jonghyun decided it was the mermaids getting closer, traveling at speeds faster than their ship could go under the water, and then there were creaks.

 

“They’re starting to tare the ship apart!” someone yelled as they came up from the stairs.

 

“They can’t get to us, there’s a spell that keeps the boat afloat, no water, sometimes fish, but no water, that’s the way it works,” Key said and gestured for Minho  to get down from the steering deck. “Gather some men to go down there and fish one of those mermaids into the ship for us. Take a couple different types, want to make sure we attract them for the right reason, and fire to keep the rest off us.”

 

Minho  quickly disappeared and Jonghyun felt Taemin stiffen beside us.

 

“You worried about him? I wouldn’t, he’s probably going to throw those men to the mermaids, not the other way around.”

 

The prince slumped forward. “I’m not worried, I want them to devour him.”

 

“Sure you do, and then who’d keep you from the others.” Jonghyun stood and stretched only to be knocked back into his spot by Taemin when the ship started rocking heavily again.

 

The pirates were pulling ropes adjusting sails, everything to keep the ship steady. Key finally got down from the steering wheel and let someone else steer it straight through the water. It was slow going and after a while Jonghyun felt like throwing up. Taemin did throw up.

 

“They certainly like playing with their food,” Key said then waved Jonghyun over.

 

The thief tugged Taemin over with him not thrusting him by himself as some of the men were still in a frenzy thinking their lives were over. He looked over the railing to see pale faces sticking out of the water.

 

“That them?” Jonghyun asked.

 

“They’re beautiful,” Taemin said leaning out farther. Jonghyun grabbed him by his hair and yanked him back none too gently. He didn’t have a good feeling about this. They’re milky skin, flawless faces, ample breasts and…chests…some of them were male to Jonghyun’s surprise. It all seemed too unreal.

 

Their red lips suddenly opened and Key pushed them both away. “I need my prince and my dog to go into the cabin with me. We can either look or hear, but we can’t do both. Since we’ve already seen, we should get back.”

 

Jonghyun was puzzled by Key’s words, but followed the captain into the cabin and sat in his usual spot at the end of Key’s bed. Taemin sat next to him looking around curiously. The moment Key shut the door singing suddenly started. It was muffled from in here, but Jonghyun could still hear it. “What is that?”

 

“The mermaids; not everyone will fall prey, usually if your heart’s already taken, you won’t, and some have strong resistance, but I still expect many of them to jump overboard and die.”

 

“What about your first mate?” Jonghyun asked.

 

Key shrugged and went over to his table picking something up and throwing it at Jonghyun. Jonghyun only managed to catch half of it, a small wax ear plug, its partner rolling across the floor at Taemin’s feet. 

 

 

**@};----------------------------------------------------------;{@**

               

Kai could smell the wreckage before he saw it. They approached the Mermaid Seat with caution, lanterns flashed down on the dark waters of early morning, the sun only a thin line of orange on the horizon. It was the smell of burned flesh tinged with a bit of roasting seafood, but mostly acrid. The Jeju heir’s stomach churned with the smell. He had smelt it only once before, burnt flesh, on a training session with the captain of the guard. They had found one of the villages farther inland burned to the ground by runaways from the mainland kingdoms; woman and children still trapped in their houses, burned to a char. He had been eleven. Afterwards was the first time he hadn’t told Taemin about his nightmares. Perhaps now, though, he’d be able to share the story with his older brother once he got him back.

 

“Prince Kai, they think they’ve found something,” Suho said coming up next to Kai as he stood peering over the ledge.

 

“Mermaid?” Kai asked. They hadn’t found a body yet, but they could smell them. He was quite impressed with the captain of his brother’s kidnappers; he certainly knew how to make his mark on the sea, murdering countless mermaids, or whatever monster swam in this area of water between their neighbor countries.

 

“We can’t be sure, but it looks like some kind of animal, a few of them actually,” Suho said. “I thought you didn’t believe in mermaids, your highness.”

 

Kai shrugged and followed Suho. “I don’t, but I’d like to be proven wrong.”

 

They walked to the other end of the boat were a group of sailors were gathered around with lanterns. Kai pushed through them and leaned over with his own lantern. He immediately moved back surprised. Just the single added light gave enough to make out the bodies that drifted on the surface of the water more. About ten women’s heads and torsos floated above the water naked and full, but tinted that horrible gray of death. A few of them had black charred spots on their faces. Kai couldn’t be sure if they were mermaids, they just looked like beautiful women you had gone through a terrible death. The prince moved down the railing, encouraging the others with lanterns to follow him. He peered out as far as he could, another ten bodies here and there. By the time they were half way through the treacherous section of water; he had counted fifty and didn’t need but his own lantern to see.

 

“What do you think they are?” Suho asked.

 

“I don’t see any fish tails” Kai answered.

 

“There are no legs either,” the navy captain shot back.

 

Kai shot him a look before sighing, “They’re probably just women those pirates bought, played with, and then tossed into the sea to scare us off.”

 

“You think they’re smart enough for that kind of gig?” Suho asked.

 

“They were smart enough to kidnap my brother.” Kai leaned over the railing a bit more. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, maybe his brother’s face among the other beautiful people, or the bottom of one of the mystery women to tell him whether mermaids really existed or if the pirates his brother was with were truly lunatics.

 

Something bubbled in the water and Kai leaned away from the railing then forward again examining the water. There was a large piece of wood, dark washed and Kai thought it looked similar. He brought the lantern forward all the way and gasped. Lying across the plank of wood was a body, not female, but just as beautiful, pale white, not tinted gray, but it was the bronze colored that started after the person’s torso that truly caught Kai’s attention. A glittering bronze tail with large scales reminiscent of a fish’s, but shaped more like a dolphin’s. Kai gestured toward Suho.

 

“What do you think that is, captain?”

 

“It couldn’t be; they’re actually mermaids?” Suho asked, white face whiter in surprise.

 

“Merman, I think. It’s awfully far away from the others. Let’s get closer and reel it in.”

 

“Your highness, what do we need with a dead fish?”

 

Kai put steady eyes on the navy captain. “It’s not dead and it’s not a fish. Have the men reel it in, but be careful, there’s less and less bodies out here so there might still be live mermaids about.”

 

It took a while for the ship to be steered closer to the merman on the wood plank and even longer to hoist him up. Kai kept his eyes on the bubbles that appeared ever so often getting closer and closer to the ship. They had lowered a boat with one man down to fetch the creature. Kai had a feeling he wouldn’t survive, but at least he could accomplish the task and his family given a large amount in sympathy. The boat finally touched the water. The bubbles got closer, quicker. The sailor reached out for the merman and tugged him onto the boat, luckily still unconscious. The boat started to rise and something suddenly shot out of the water, a silver tailed creature not as beautiful as the rest, mouth agape with large sharp teeth and eyes bitch black, hands webbed and clawed reached out for the sailor. The sailor yelled in pain and moved back on the boat. The jumped up again and the sailor reached out with an oar and smacked it in the stomach. The other sailors hurried to help their comrade back on the ship and another group of sailors began to steer the ship out of the way of the Mermaid Sea.

 

Kai moved to the boat where the mermaid was still unconscious inside. He kneeled and stared at the creature. He really was beautiful, like a prince of the water, pale and soft. The prince’s eyes roamed the toned and lithe body and stopped on the bronze scales. The merman was turned on his side and Kai could see the shape of his hip as well as the large scale in front that covered the top part of what resembled the sheath you might find on a dog or other male mammal. Kai’s eyes moved back up to stare at the merman’s face, youthful in appearance almost not matching the build of his body. He had long lashes and a small round nose with locks of wet brown hair plastered to its white cheek. Kai reached a steady hand out to touch it. Only centimeters away, the creature’s eyes widened, a soft doe brown at first then pitch black and his face contorted to show rows of sharp teeth. Kai was moved back by the sailors and they pulled out swords.

 

“Don’t kill it!” Kai yelled he stood and pushed the tip of one of the swords down, the rest following.

 

The merman hissed at Kai and started to climb out of the boat, clawed webbed hands reaching out for the prince. It hissed again and tumbled out, rolling across the ship floor. It tried to push itself up, but only shivered and suddenly morphed, bronze tail becoming too long pale legs and clawed hands soft small ones. The hissing became soft human like growling and Kai moved quickly to the merman. He grabbed its arms and the creature tried to fight him, but it was week and now no stronger than any other man.

 

“Quickly, bind it and bring it to my chambers,” Kai said and turned.

 

Suho stopped him, a hand on his upper arm. “What do you want with a mermaid?”

 

Kai took Suho’s hand and removed it. “It might know in which way the pirates went after they left this place. He’s our only lead to my brother.”

 

 

**@};-------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun followed Key as he went below deck, the prince following after him. It had been a few hours since the rocking had stop, already early morning. The scent of fried mermaid still lingered in the air and Jonghyun held his sleeve over his face having given Taemin his scarf. The smell was worst the closer they got to the kitchen. Key walked in first and Jonghyun pulled Taemin over to the bench they usually sat at. Onew was at his silver table pulling out knives and arranging them at the end of the table. The door opened again and Minho  showed up with two other pirates who were covered in blood and looked haunted. They carried a heavy wet blanket. It moved a bit and Jonghyun figured a mermaid was wrapped in it. They flopped the wet blanket down on the table and moved away. It unfolded with the creatures small movements.

 

Taemin gasped when the creature was revealed. It was beautiful and horrible at the same time. Its tail was a bright gold color, but most of its torso was ugly and red, burned by the flames and it was missing an arm. Jonghyun could almost not tell whether it was male or female if it wasn’t for the one soft mound on their chest, all hair and facial features melted off. It twitched, only barely alive, but definitely unconscious, the movement just nerves reacting.

 

Minho  showed the haunted pirates out and locked the door then went over to Taemin, staring down at the prince. His white shirt was bloodied, but otherwise he seemed perfectly in tact. The prince scooted away from him and held a hand over the scarf already covering his nose.

 

Key walked over to Jonghyun and pulled him up by a tug of his collar. “I need you to keep a constant splash of water on the mermaid’s legs as Onew cuts it.” He handed him a bucket and a ladle.

 

Taemin shot up from the bench. “You’re going to cut it? You can’t do that, it’s still alive!”

 

“Minho, shut your boy up, I don’t need his princely protests. If she was to die here, she’d turn into foam the minute she got too dry. They only keep their form in the water because the salt water preserves them longer and they slowly turn into foam.”

 

“I thought you didn’t know about mermaids,” Jonghyun said.

 

“I said I didn’t know if they ate people. I never said I didn’t know anything about them. Besides, we witnessed it earlier, just keep quiet, dog.”

 

“I’ll start the cutting now then,” Onew said smiling at the others.

 

“You can’t!” Taemin protested again only to be pushed harshly down on the bench by the first mate who slid in next to him and held him close, a hand threateningly close to his crotch. The prince shrunk and stayed quiet, eyes focused on the table.

 

Jonghyun ladled on salt water every ten second onto the mermaid’s fin right were it split in two thinner ones. He tried not to watch Onew as he worked, but he had a morbid fascination and watched as Onew began to scrape the scales around the mermaid’s crotch area as if he was descaling any other large fish. He kept one very large scale in placed. Small nicks produced blood and the cook wiped them with a towel before picking up a fillet knife and dug out the top layer around the same area. The cook then use the knife to carefully lift the large scale away and cut a slit down the hole that was revealed. He parted some muscle then dug in and pulled out a strange sort of sack.

 

“What’s that?” Jonghyun asked.

 

Onew moved to put the sack into a preserve bottle.

 

Key removed his sword and placed it at the mermaid’s neck. “It’s where a baby would have grown had she been pregnant. We’ll just call it the purity sack for now.”

 

Jonghyun felt his stomach churn and looked away as Key’s sword sliced through the mermaid’s neck. The body twitched once more before going completely limp.

 


	10. “The smallest of gifts are the ones that mean the most.”

**Chapter 10**

 

**“The smallest of gifts are the ones that mean the most.”**

 

Kai stood outside his cabin, leaning against the door, arms crossed. His brows furrowed every time he heard a thumping from inside and he shivered when there was a clash. Suho stopped as he passed by.

 

“Is it still throwing a fit?” the navy captain asked.

 

“It’s getting tired,” Kai answered jumping when something hit the door.

 

“Seems it has a good arm, are you sure it’s not up walking around? He does have legs now.”

 

“I doubt it’s ever been out of water before.”

 

Suho gave him a sympathetic smile. “I know you want to find Prince Taemin, but what if that creature in here doesn’t even speak our language. It’s not human.”

 

Kai unfolded his arms and stared the shorter man down, pulling himself up straight. “If a dog can find game on its master’s command than something even closer to us in species can find the person who killed over half its family. Revenge isn’t something only sought by humans.”

 

The navy captain bowed his head. “I suppose so, Your Majesty.”

 

Kai waited until Suho and continued on his way before turning to the door and pushing down on the doorknob. He gestured for two guards to stand outside the door before going in. The merman laid on Kai’s bed like a crippled, legs spread straight out at an angle, white and smooth, and curved torso hanging over the edge, hand reaching out for water it could reach. Kai approached it, his footsteps alerting the merman and he shrank back with a hiss. The prince looked at the table the merman had been throwing things from. There were mostly scrolls and paperweights on it, most of those now on the ground. He picked up the remaining paperweight and held it out to the merman.

 

“You want to throw this? If you can take it from me then you can throw it at me,” Kai said holding the heavy glass out toward the merman.

 

The merman’s eyes shimmered night sea black and his body rippled before he settled back down. He looked warily at Kai with doe brown eyes and reached out a delicate hand, no more dangerous than a human’s. Kai grinned a little thinking that still pretty dangerous. Only hairs length away from grabbing the paperweight, Kai jerked his own wrist dropping the paperweight onto the bed and flicking his hand over to catch the merman’s wrist. The merman tried to grab the hunk of glass with his other hand, but Kai grabbed that one too and lifted the merman’s torso up so he was kneeling on shaky legs. It struggled with him, but not use to the support of legs, it looked more like a struggling fish and Kai chuckled a bit.

 

“It’s useless, just calm down; I’m not going to hurt you.”

 

The creature glared at him, youthful face suddenly turning up devilishly and it licked its lips. Kai’s eyes widened and he tried to take a step back, but the merman’s teeth were already sunk into his arm. He yelled and let go of one of the merman’s wrists to yank his head back instead by the creatures now dried and fluffy hair. The guards rushed in and he let them tie the creature’s hands in front of it. He pulled up a seat next to the bed and inspected his arm. Rows of sharp teeth had embedded themselves into his flesh. He washed it with his drinking water before wrapping it, planning to go to the medic after he’d finished talking to the merman.

 

“That wasn’t very nice, you know,” Kai said. “I wasn’t going to hurt you, but you hurt me. I just wanted to ask you questions, can you understand that?”

 

“Human.”

 

Kai was surprised hearing the merman speak for the first time. He furrowed his brows and watched the creature curiously as it shifted on the bed, examining the ropes on its wrists.

 

“Yes,” Kai said.

 

“Male human.”

 

“Yes,” Kai said again.

 

“You make all the sisters go crazy,” the merman said.

 

“I don’t quite understand what you mean,” Kai said. It was fascinating that the merman could talk even if it was only this much, it was enough.

 

“Yes, you don’t understand. I understand you, human male, but you don’t understand me,” the merman said. He licked his lips and Kai could tell it was thinking about through the binds.

 

“You’re right, I don’t understand you, however I do understand you’re thinking about biting those ropes, so don’t.”

 

The merman looked at Kai with a grin. “Smart human. How about you undo them then?”

 

Kai shook his head. “I can’t do that, you bit me. Perhaps I’ll let you free after I’ve finished talking to you. What do you mean by your sisters go crazy?”

 

The merman shifted more and frowned when one of his legs moved. “There are not many male as you call us ‘merpeople’. We have to mate, though, and humans are the closest, but they die so easily in the water and they can’t take the kinks us mermaids have in our mating.” The merman grinned at this.

 

“So you don’t eat humans?” Kai asked.

 

“No,” the merman said staring at Kai with a condescending look. “Not that we haven’t tried human on the occasion. It’s a sexual devouring that humans just can’t seem to live through. Even if they make it through one, they’re dead by the time the next sister can get them inside. I’ve seen it way too many times.”

 

“And you, can you live through the mating. You’re male.”

 

The merman shifted closer to the edge of the bed. “I am. I haven’t mated yet.”

 

“I have a hard time believing that,” Kai said, his eyes raking down the smooth paleness of the creature’s naked skin. He adverted his eyes when they reached the creature’s lap.

 

“Believe what you like, human. There are only five brothers in my herd. We stay on the outside of the sisters when they go into frenzy. Sometimes elders even pretend to be a sailor or pirate and urge the ships into our territory.”

 

 “That’s a disturbing thought. You speak our language though.”

 

“I speak many languages. I am a brother and brothers are taught so the sisters can mate,” the merman said.

 

Kai leaned forward. He found what the mermaid said fascinating and perhaps he really could get the merman on his side. “If you can speak then you must have a name.”

 

“I have a name if you have a name, human male,” the merman said and grinned at Kai.

 

The prince grinned back. “I am Prince Kai.”

 

“Prince?” the merman said then laughed. It was a soft sound and it surprised Kai, like an instrument playing from the music halls in their castle. “I’m a prince, too then, a prince of mermaids. I am Luhan.”

 

“Luhan.” Kai rolled the name around in his mouth. “Luhan, it sounds Chinese.”

 

“I can speak that, too,” the merman said, “so perhaps it is. I’ve talked to you, Prince Kai; will you let me free now?”

 

“I will, but I have something to ask of you first. Your sisters, how many of them were killed?”

 

The merman’s face darkened. “Most. There were many pirates and their goal seemed to kill us.”

 

“Do you want to avenge them?”

 

The merman, Luhan, looked at Kai curiously. “I would, but I can not leave our territory. I don’t know enough about the sea outside to go after pirates, I’m the youngest brother.”

 

“What if I was to help you?”

 

“And why would you want to do that, Prince Kai?”

 

“Those pirates that killed your sisters, they kidnapped my brother. I have to get him back.”

 

Luhan tilted his head, pink lips forming an ‘o’. “Hmm, your brother, another prince; I think I understand why you pulled me from the water. You want to know where they went.”

 

Kai nodded. “Will you help me?”

 

“I have conditions. I want to kill one of them. I also want to learn more.”

 

Kai thought it over then nodded and reached out a hand to the merman. “Then it’s a deal, help me get my brother back and you can have revenge and knowledge.”

 

Luhan stared at the hand then shook his head. “I will not use a human gesture of agreement. We have a different method.”

 

Kai put his hand down. “And what is that?”

 

The merman grinned. “You’ll have to come closer; I can’t move my legs yet.”

 

The prince looked at Luhan distrustfully. “You’ll bite me again.”

 

Luhan laughed again, the tenor tinkling ringing in Kai’s ears. “The first step in a deal is trust, come closer prince Kai.”

 

Kai shivered the creature’s sudden change in tone, a low almost seductive sound, new to his ears. He wondered if all mermaids sounded like this as he moved to lean over the merman. Luhan looked up at him with gleaming brown eyes. It lifted its bound wrists and looped them around Kai’s neck. The prince grabbed one of Luhan’s arms in warning, but the merman only continued, pulling Kai down further, faces coming closer and closer.

 

“This is how deals are made in the depths of the water,” Luhan said before smashing his pink lips against Kai’s so roughly it caused surprised spark to erupt over Kai’s body.

 

The prince almost understood why so many men couldn’t survive mating with one of these natural seducers.

 

 

**@};------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Taemin stirred from the bed with a yawn. He stretched his arms over his head only to find them tied together again. He frowned and shifted, gasping when pain ran up his back. No matter how many times they did it, the prince just couldn’t get use to the pounding. It didn’t help that Minho  didn’t go easy on him. The first mate enjoyed the frenzy that was his hips slapping against Taemin’s bottom as the prince tried to struggle away. No, he did remember once when he had woken up with only a slight sting, that time in the brothel when he rode the first mate. Taemin hadn’t been as cooperative since then. Maybe it was because Minho  had taken a liking to tying his hands up or maybe because the thought of ever enjoying the invasion to his body again made him want to shrivel up and ask his brother and father and dead mother for forgiveness.

 

The wizard prince sat up in bed, knee pulled to his naked chest and arms wrapped around his sheet covered legs. He looked to the side where the first mate slept peacefully. Taemin had most of the blanket, so he could easily see the slightly tanned skin that blanketed the muscle’s of Minho’s body. He wasn’t a bad looking man, Taemin could at least appreciate that much about the first mate. He also didn’t seem like a bad man, just a mean one. Of course, any pet would think their master not a bad man, and that’s what Taemin felt like, a pet. He was forced to follow Minho  around everywhere if not with the thief who Taemin had decided had been too easily swayed over to the pirate side and would definitely not help him with escaping, he was given food by Minho’s hands, forced to sit in Minho’s lap, even washed by the first mate. Taemin didn’t want to be a pet.

 

On the other side of the bed he had shared with the first mater over the last few weeks was the floor and  his and Minho’s clothes were sprawled across it. Taemin looked down at them then at the door and back. He had never woken up in the middle of the night before after activities with the first mate. Maybe the door was only locked so those outside couldn’t get inside. He had never had this thought and a grin grew on Taemin’s face. He carefully climbed out of bed and slipped on his breeches as best he could with tied up hands. He tip toed over to the door and touched the knob hearing a click and grinned brighter. He only had the slightest thought that he still wanted his staff then decided he could always get a new staff. They were closer to Japan than China at the moment, he knew that much, and he also knew a family royal in Japan. They were out of the Mermaid Sea, he could row a boat there.

 

He was still sleep ridden and probably hadn’t worked out all the kinks to his plot, but to Taemin this was a one time chance and so he quickly opened the door, careful of squeaks, and left. He tried to sneak to the kitchen for a knife encase he had to cut any ropes, only able to get his hands on a fillet knife left out, probably forgotten by Onew when he cut opened the mermaid. Taemin tried not to think about the scene when he had buried his face into the first mate’s chest so as not to watch. He had seen a rabbit killed and skinned on a trip with his father and thrown up. He sometimes thought that was when the king had made it official that Kai, who had just frowned at the rabbit, a year difference still enough in mental age back then that he hadn’t understood what was going on, would be the heir.

 

Taemin tried to be inconspicuous as he made his way up the stairs to the top deck. There were only a few pirates at work at night. The prince peeked above to scan the area before hurrying across to where he knew one of the safety boats were. He climbed inside and laid flat, chest rising and falling quickly with nerves. Taemin moved when he thought no one had seen him and started trying to cut the ropes of the boat. He heard footsteps and laid himself flat again. He cried out when someone grabbed his arm and hoisted him out of the boat, a pirate with a devilish grin.

 

“Hey there, kid, what do you think you’re doing?” the pirate asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be tucked up nicely in Mr. First Mate’s arms?”

 

Taemin struggled and wished he’d had the fillet knife in his other hand, it was useless to him when the pirate was holding the arm he had been cutting with.

 

“You even have a nice little weapon here. Is it a present from Minho, or where you trying to get away.”

 

“Let me go,” Taemin growled, but was only thrown into the both, his wrist hitting against one of the seats knocking the knife out of his hand. He tried to scramble for it, but was pulled back by the pirate grabbing his belt loops.

 

“You don’t seem to like your master much, prince, how about you try on another master, eh?” the pirate said and Taemin froze feeling a hand land on his naked back. “I’ll make you feel good, like a real whore.”

 

Taemin squeezed his eyes shut and tried to kick back. “No, I’m a prince, don’t touch me.”

 

“Unless you’re captain, you got no title here,” the pirate said and pulled hard making Taemin loose his hold trying to move away and he slid back ending up in the pirate’s lap. He turned and tried to scratch at the pirate’s face, the attack seeming more affective than trying to punch him.

 

“Hey, stop it you little slut,” the pirate growled and pushed Taemin down onto the boat floor then grabbed his pants. “I was going to be nice to you, but I think I’ll just take what I want.”

 

“I’ll scream if you don’t leave me be,” Taemin threatened. He didn’t know where the knife had gone, but he was close enough to the captain’s cabin that maybe the thief or the captain would hear him. The thief was the captain’s slave and the captain was Minho’s friend. If Taemin was correct in their deal, no one was supposed to touch Taemin, or maybe that was taking advantage as Taemin had only been cooperative once in the dozens of times Minho  had taken him.

 

The pirate just chuckled and pulled out his penis, already red and Taemin’s eyes widened. “I’ll just have to make sure your mouth’s too full to talk.”

 

Taemin immediately covered his mouth. The first mate hadn’t even done such a thing to him. He kicked at the pirate with his legs as he tried to straddle the prince.

 

The pirate managed to grab one of Taemin’s legs and tried to pry Taemin’s hands off with his other hand. “Come on, prince. You’ve already practiced on the first mate.”

 

Taemin shook his head, bruising his face with how tightly he covered his mouth. He’d bite the pirate, he would. There was suddenly a blow to his stomach and Taemin gasped, hands instinctly moving to clutch his stomach and he let out a loud scream.

 

“That’s it,” the pirate grinned and grabbed Taemin’s face, forcing his lips opened.

 

The prince looked up at him, body froze. He could feel his shadow looming over them. The flesh was only centimeters away when Taemin felt red hot blood coating his face. He closed his eyes and fell back, scrambling backwards when the pirate fell dead before him. Taemin looked up, shaking to see Minho  standing there, sword still held out were it had pierced straight through the man’s heart. He pulled it back, wiped it on his shirt, and then sheathed it.

 

“You’re an idiot if you thought I wouldn’t notice you leaving,” the first mate said.

 

Taemin felt tears prick his eyes, but he refused to cry. He couldn’t understand why he felt so scared now, so relieved and so scared. He’d almost been gang raped than unwillingly taken again and again by the man before him, yet his heart beat the fastest now.

 

Minho  held out a hand and Taemin took it resigning himself to the deal he’d made.

 

**@};----------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun was woken by the loud growling of angry pirates. He groaned wondering how often he would be woken to a disturbance rather than Key shaking him for the next year as he acted as dog. He found it hard to unfurl himself from his curled up place at the end of Key’s bed. He hadn’t even gotten to yawn before he was pulled up on his feet by Key grabbing his collar.

 

“Those idiot mutts, what are they doing?” Key grumbled as he pulled Jonghyun along through the door. “Someone better be dead.”

 

There was a group of pirates over by where one of the emergency boats was kept. Standing higher above them was the first mate with Taemin shoved behind him. Key pushed through the crowd of pirates. They made way for their captain though rather reluctantly. Jonghyun tilted his hat down so as to not catch any of their eyes as he followed Key.

 

“What is going on here?” Key asked glaring up at Minho.

 

The first mate glared back before turning. He bent over one of the canvas coverings on the boat and Jonghyun took a step back. There was a pirate faced down with a pool of blood around him and soaking through the back of his shirt. Key took a step up and inspected the body before frowning. He looked up at Minho.

 

“Let me see your sword, Minho.”

 

The first mate obediently removed his sword from its sheath and handed it to Key. Taemin stayed behind Minho and Jonghyun was surprised to see one of his hands clutching the first mate’s belt.

 

Key handed the sword back. “Why’d you kill him, Minho?”

 

“He was touching something that was mine.”

 

The captain peeked over at Taemin and nodded. “That’s fine, but why was your thing out here?”

 

Minho  adjusted himself and glanced back at the prince. “I scared him a bit, he was just hiding.”

 

Key nodded then turned to the rest of the pirates. “You know the rules, don’t touch the first mate’s or my things or you die. First mate and his ‘thing’ will clean up the mess, though.”

 

The pirates grumbled, but went back to their work, mumbling stuff about how Taemin hadn’t been hiding, but trying to get away and the other pirate was only trying to punish him. Jonghyun scoffed at that idea. Was raping their type of punishing? Well, it wasn’t that uncommon even on the island. He followed Key back into the cabin.

 

The thief went over to the fire that Key had boiling a kettle on and poked it then turned to see Key laid flat on his bed staring at the ceiling. “You seem angry.”

 

“It’s your fault you know. I have to be nice to that prince because of you; he obviously tried to run away. Minho  likes him too much so I expected him to cover up for him, but really, I can’t have him going around and killing the only men I had left. He was all too happy to throw those extras out for the mermaids to eat,” the pirate captain rambled.

 

Jonghyun chuckled. “You’re right, but what can you do?”

 

Key turned his head and glared at Jonghyun. “I could always throw you overboard and then your precious prince with you. That might make me feel better.”

 

“How would throwing a dog overboard make you feel better?” Jonghyun asked and tried to resemble that of a kicked puppy.

 

The captain scoffed and went back to looking at the ceiling. “Just go get those two buckets and rags, then hurry back here and guard my door, I’m not finished sleeping.”

 

Jonghyun tilted his head and took a moment to examine the captain. He looked tired and he regretted it only a little asking Key to give the prince a break, but maybe it wasn’t that that was chipping at the captain’s mind, maybe it was the treasure and how many more men he would loose in order to obtain it. For someone so young and beautiful, Jonghyun thought Key certainly had too many things on his mind. Why had he wanted to become a pirate captain at only fourteen? How had he succeeded in it for so long? Wasn’t he scared?

 

Jonghyun moved toward the bed. Key only blinked registering he’d heard the other move. He stood right by the bed and looked over staring down at Key. The captain glared up at him, a frown tugging on his pink bowed lips.

 

“What do you want dong?” he asked.

 

Said ‘dog’ only grinned and leaned down, placing his smile over Key’s frowned. When he leaned back up, he responded, “Just a treat.” He paused a moment before going to get cleaning supplies for the first mate and Taemin. Had that been fear he’d seen in the captain’s eyes when he pulled away from the kiss?

 


	11. “The intention of actions are often misunderstood.”

**Chapter 11**

 

**“The intention of actions are often misunderstood.”**

 

Jonghyun did not return to the captain’s cabin. After fetching cleaning supplies for Minho  and Taemin, he instead parked himself outside the cabin, seated in front of the door and watched the other pirates go about their early morning chores. Some of the pirates hollered things over at him, insults, jives, and commands. They all fell on delft ears as only his eyes moved with them. Jonghyun’s  mind was elsewhere preoccupied. The crashing waves of fear he had seen in Key’s eyes after he’d kissed him were drowning out any other thoughts. He had thought it a good idea at first, or perhaps he hadn’t really thought at all. To Jonghyun, the captain was just cute when angry and he seemed to become increasingly annoyed the closer they got to that treasure. He had just wanted to make Key feel better. Now that he thought about it, it probably was a bad idea.

 

The thief sighed and lightly hit the back of his head against the captain’s door. He hoped this would end up being one of those bad decisions with good results he always tended to make, like deciding to go to that ungoverned island and be a thief. Onew had made such a big deal over the fact he was allowed to spend the night in Key’s room after his homosexuality had been made a known thing, and Jonghyun hoped he hadn’t broken some unspoken thrust bond. Then again, he had never promised not to attack Key like he was sure Minho had, and you really keep a dog from wanting to kiss their Master.

 

Jonghyun fell back when the door was suddenly wrenched opened. He looked up from his position sprawled on the floor half inside the captain’s cabin and half out with his head nestled between two boot heels. His eyes traveled up shapely white clad thighs to the slight bulge that indicated Key’s manhood and grinned. The heels scooted back a foot and instead of Key’s crotch, Jonghyun found himself staring at his face which was all fine by the thief even if that face was scrunched up in a school that Jonghyun thought was cute; it was when their eyes met that Jonghyun’s grin disappeared – those dark intriguing dangerous eyes trying to drown him, but he could see now, like a vulnerable silver fish caught in a whirlpool, Key’s fear.

 

The captain bent down and grabbed Jonghyun by his shoulder and pushed him into a sitting position. Jonghyun turned his head to look at Key and greet him, but went speechless as, instead of walking around Jonghyun to get out the door, Key walked over him, a leg lifted high, taunt muscles on his thigh’s movements obvious through the thin material of his breeches. Jonghyun’s head followed those movements only to meet Key’s eyes gain, this time less whirlpool and more silver fish. The captain looked away quickly.

 

“Could you stop that?”

 

Jonghyun almost didn’t recognize the voice that came out of Key’s mouth. Also, he couldn’t remember the last time Key had asked him to do something, not commanded him. “Stop what?”

 

“Making obvious your interest in me.”

 

Jonghyun scratched the back of his head. “Was it obvious?”

 

“What kind of question is that after this morning?” The captain glanced at Jonghyun then looked away. The thief was awestruck by the faintest sign of a blush on Key’s cheeks at the mention of the kiss. “There are boys here for that, use them at your leisure.”

 

Jonghyun sighed ant stood up. “I thank you for the permission, but I’m not really interested in them. It’s not like I kissed you because I want to have sex with you. I like you, Key.”

 

The captain’s body seemed to relax at Jonghyun’s words. “If that’s not your intention than don’t make such advances.”

 

“You misunderstand,” Jonghyun said. “My intention is to make you fall for me. It’s only natural having sex would be part of that.”

 

Key stood frozen, or perhaps not frozen as his body stood languid not taught. Jonghyun watched him carefully. It was almost amusing. Since even before he’d set foot onto this ship he had hear tales (though not many as Jonghyun was not one interested in gossip and preferred to stay away from it) about the ferocious captain who sailed the ship with the red flags, but standing before him wasn’t the young captain of _The Locket_ , but an even younger scared boy.

 

Jonghyun approached him, a hand reaching out carefully toward Key. He placed it on the captain’s shoulder and Key shrunk away, but Jonghyun kept his hand firmly in place. “I’m your dog and I want all of my Master’s affection. That’s not such a weird desire for a dog.”

 

He watched Key’s lips part (remembering their softness only now and the aftertaste of bitter tea), but Key only let out a shuddering breath. Jonghyun was having an affect on Key, but he wasn’t sure if it was the affect he wanted. The thief took a step back.

 

“Well no, Master Key, what are we doing today?” Jonghyun asked grinning at the captain, tone chipper than he really felt like being right then.

 

It only took a second for Key to match his stone with his usual determined death glare. “We’re headed to an island.”

 

Jonghyun perked up. “Is there another Whore Island around here?”

 

“No, we’re going to see a witch.”

 

Jonghyun’s fake mood dropped considerably. “I don’t like witches.”

 

“Neither do I, but I promised this witch something in return for something else.” Key’s heels clicked across the floor as he started for the steering deck.

 

Jonghyun followed him begrudgingly, hands stuffed in his pockets. “I hate making deals with witches even more.”

 

Key slowed his steps so they matched and walked side by side. “Have you met many witches?”

 

Jonghyun was surprised by the personal question. “Witches, only one, but there’s hordes of wizards, most of them I would have rather not met, even the one that started out good ended up with three months of lice.”

 

The captain moved away disgusted. Jonghyun shook his hands out in front of him.

 

“I don’t have them anymore.”

 

Key scoffed. “Flees would have been more fitting.”

 

Jonghyun stumbled, a bit taken back. The captain had made a joked, yes about him, but it was a joke all the same and there was a smiled gracing his lips. Jonghyun felt his chest tighten.

 

The captain walked up ahead of him then jumped onto the steering platform, pushing the pirate who had been navigating to the side.

 

“What should I do now, Master Key?” Jonghyun called up to him.

 

Key glanced down smirking. “First, grab me a bite of breakfast, then go chase Minho around like a good dog. He’s not allowed his prick in any hole until night fall.”

 

**@};-----------------------------------;{@**

 

Instead of traveling precariously through a rocky path, they anchored the ship a bit from the sandy shore of the tiny island Key said the witch lived on. It was so small, Jonghyun was sure if a tsunami was to strike it, the whole island would be wiped out, maybe not even needing such a harsh wave of destruction, just weeks of heavy rain. Key put him on one of the first boats set out to the island. He frowned the whole time watching Key’s back as the pirate captain gave directions to the rest. Even the prince got to stay until the last ship with captain and first mate. It seemed the captain had been a bit distant the past couple of days it took them to get here, somewhere South of China. Or perhaps that was Jonghyun’s fault as he tried to give Key some space. He was tired now; he couldn’t get much sleep sitting outside the captain’s cabin.

 

It was hot. Jonghyun wanted to pull off his shirt, but thought better of it if they were going to meet a woman and Key said he didn’t want his dog to get tanned. He adjusted his hat and went over to the cook who had just docked to help him with his boat, securing it on the sand. Then, they gathered with the other pirates by the palm trees out of the way of the sun.

 

The captain finally docked on his own boat, a few pirates still on the ship. Jonghyun felt uneasy about it, but Key seemed at piece so he let the thought go. Key wouldn’t let his precious ship alone without some form of protection on it. The pirates made a path for their captain. Key walked through them, sparring Jonghyun at glance and he immediately moved into step behind his Master, next to the prince who walked behind Minho. Jonghyun hadn’t talked to the prince much lately. There was a part of him that worried, and worried more seeing the sleep deprived look on the prince’s face. He wondered if Minho  really was that insatiable or if it was something else. Cabin fever? Jonghyun put the thought aside for now.

 

They made their way through the palm trees and southern tropical underbrush. It wasn’t long until they made their way to a small cabin. It would have looked almost welcoming, clean and made in a light colored wood, if it wasn’t for the many cult artifacts spread around the yard. Jonghyun cringed when he passed a shrunken head and various jars with parts whether human or some kind of animal he rather not know. The door opened just as they stepped foot in the hard. A beautiful woman stepped out. She had the usual blonde hair of anyone born with magic in the Easter world. What surprised Jonghyun about her were her eyes, pitch black, on the verge of red, almost unnatural. Key approached first and bowed to her.

 

“Witch Victoria,” Key greeted the woman.

 

The witch smiled and curtsied in return. “Welcome, Captain Key of the ship with the blood soaked sails. You’ve returned much quicker than I had expected.”

 

Key just put on a polite smile and moved toward the woman. “I’ve brought what you asked, allow us in.”

 

The witches black eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together. “Of course, but I live in a small humble space, I’m afraid most of your crew will have to wait outside.”

 

Jonghyun saw Key’s smile turn into a grin as he moved past the witch. “Half will go back to the beach, the other half will stand outside. Onew, Minho, dog, you come with me.”

 

The first mate nudged Key and the captain glared at him before looking toward the prince behind him. “By Minho, I expect he would come, too. He’s yours after all.” Key continued inside. Jonghyun followed at the end behind Onew who carried a box between his hands.

 

Inside the witch’s house looked much more like what Jonghyun would expect of a witch, jars and books spread everywhere and cauldrons cooking on peasant style ovens that lined the walls. He supposed this witch’s catalyst were potions.

 

She had a sitting area before the largest of the cauldrons. Taemin immediately sat, Minho  standing by the arm. Jonghyun thought to do the same, but kept himself when  none of the pirates sat down. The witch looked over them all them smiled at Taemin.

 

“You have a wizard aboard your ship, Captain Key?”

 

“He’s a prisoner,” Key replied. “He’s Minho’s slave. Don’t bother talking to him about magic, he can’t use it now anyways.”

 

Victoria laughed. “I have no intention in helping your slave escape.” Her eyes went to Minho  briefly before landing on Onew. “I remember this one, the cook.”

 

Onew bowed. “It’s good to see you again, Witch Victoria.”

 

The witch’s eyes landed on Jonghyun next. He felt like stepping back when those black black eyes bet his. “I don’t remember this one.”

 

“He’s a thief and a dog, so I’d hide anything weird of value,” Key said and Jonghyun glowered at him. “Let’s proceed quickly.”

 

“Of course,” the witch said and held her hands out. “Mine first.”

 

Key rolled his eyes and gestured toward Onew. The cook stepped forward and opened the box. Victoria reached inside and pulled out a jar with what Jonghyun recognized as the organ they had pulled out of the mermaid. The witch’s eyes glittered seeing the organ.

 

“You actually got the purity sack of a mermaid. How glorious,” she said.

 

“Mine, now, if you would,” Key said.

 

Victoria clicked her tongue. “So impatient.” She moved to one of her book cases and began to dig around until she pulled out a single sheet of parchment with words written on it. “I gave you a map last time, and this time I will give you the spell. You know, it’s a good thing you kept your captive alive, you wouldn’t have been able to utter this spell without him.”

 

Key’s eyes widened. Jonghyun looked toward Taemin. The captain had been all with letting the prince die, but Jonghyun had insisted otherwise. It seemed he had been right to do so. The prince shifted on the couch. He seemed uncomfortable, but Jonghyun had a feeling it wasn’t because of them.

 

“We’ll be going now,” Key said and turned away. The witch reached a hand out, lightly touching the clothe on Key’s arm. “Stay the night, it’s already so late, and you know how dangerous these waters are.”

 

“We arrived here early,” Key started then looked froze. He turned his head and Jonghyun followed as he looked out the only uncovered window in the witch’s home. The sun was already setting. “Fine.”

 

Key pulled away and started outside. Jonghyun followed.

 

“Is there something wrong?” Jonghyun asked.

 

“No, it’ll be fine,” Key said.

 

“Who is that lady?” Jonghyun asked.

 

“A necromancer. I ran into her while searching for clues to find the treasure. Any other questions dog?”

 

Key’s words were stressed. Jonghyun fell back. “Nothing, just be careful.”

 

Key stopped and turned to look at Jonghyun as if he was a monster. He turned away, head tilted down. “I’m a pirate, I don’t have to be careful.”

 

**@};-------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

 

Taemin had never met another witch like her. Victoria’s eyes were pitched black and by the looks of her books and collective choice of herbs, she dabbled in the darker side of magic. Taemin’s teacher had warned him about witches like this when she still had the will to teach Taemin anything at all. He had caught her saying once that his mother had dabbled in such things as well before coming to be his father’s consort. Briefly, Taemin entertained the idea that perhaps this lady knew his mother and he could ask her about her, but those black eyes kept him rooted to his spot on the couch by the larges of Victoria’s cauldrons.

 

It was night now. For a while Minho  had sat with him. It was still uncomfortable when the first mate wrapped his arms around his shoulder or started to play with patches of his skin, but Taemin had resigned himself with dealing with it. He owed the man now, probably owed him twice. It wasn’t like he was enjoying it, even if Minho  did comment that he moaned. All he did was lay there and let the pirate take what Taemin owed him for making him take someone’s life. The witch had started to cook something, Onew gone with her, and a commotion had happened outside so Minho  had gone out to check it. The moment the first mate had left him alone, Taemin had started to feel that familiar tightening in his chest.

 

The prince was scared. He had felt this tightening many times before after fitful nights of nightmares. He had felt it when the group from the mainland tried to infiltrate their castle, he felt it when his brother had been thrown from his horse and bedridden for three months when they were twelve. And recently, he had felt it before being kidnapped by Key. He wasn’t sure who to tell or if he wanted to tale anyone about his fears. The nightmares had been filled with dark eyes and decomposing bodies rising from the ground. He didn’t know what it meant, and no one would believe him, no one had believed him at the castle. Watch wizard had premonitions? Only the old cooks in the market place ever said they did.

 

Taemin wondered when they would go back to the ship. He had thought it odd that Key would leave the ship, but he had seen the captain put a strange lock on the steering wheel, and he also had the feeling every time he started to worry about it that the ship would be just fine. If they got to the ship, they would be just fine. Taemin hoped they went to the ship soon, but it was already dark and he could hear drunken laughing outside from the pirates standing guard. None of them had come inside. It was safe inside. Inside the ship and inside this house they would be safe, that’s what the tightening was telling him. The prince stood. He had to get someone to listen. Maybe he could find the thief, he was good at getting the captain to listen to him. Taemin also supposed if he found Minho  first he could attempt to tell the first mate.

 

He moved out of the small house and outside. It was easy enough to move through the drunken pirates without being questioned, though he had to dodge a few wildly thrown arms. He searched through the masses of bodies littered around the rather disturbing yard even more disturbing in the dark. Taemin stood and perked up thinking he saw something tall moving just beyond the trees. Perhaps the first mate had gone to relieve himself. The prince didn’t hesitate to go after him, nothing he hadn’t seen before and any consequences finding himself alone with the first mate would bring was worth it if he listened. It wasn’t that Taemin cared what happened to the pirates, but he still wanted to go back to his brother and dying here would insure that he didn’t.

 

The trees were thicker than Taemin remembered coming in, vines hanging low and he gritted his teeth as he moved through them. He finally came to a small clearing in the trees and stopped out of breath. He didn’t think Minho  would have gone this far into the jungle area of the island. Actually, he didn’t remember going for this long into the jungle. Was he lost? Taemin looked around nervously. If he kept walking, he figured he’d get to one end of the island or another and then he could just walk back around to where the other pirates were. If he stayed out of their way, they wouldn’t touch him and he could hope Minho  would come looking for him since he seemed confined to having Taemin by his side. It seemed like a good idea, and looking back, the witch’s house no where in sight, it seemed like the only idea.

 

Taemin kept walking. He saw the sprinkles of gold sand up ahead and quickened his steps. There was rustling and Taemin paused. The rustling passed him, lots of rustling and fast. The prince was quiet, but quick as he moved after them. He stopped at the lining of trees, the pirates left on the beach catty corner to his place in the trees. He sighed a breath of relief for what he didn’t know until something suddenly shot out along with a dozen more. Taemin’s eyes widened as the pirates on the beach were suddenly taken down by almost invisible killers. Taemin moved closer and gasped when he could see what exactly was attacking the pirates – dismembered body parts swinging swords and axes. He fell back onto the jungle floor. He blinked his eyes a few times then screamed when he saw a mostly put together skeleton looking down at him. The skeleton screamed back and jumped.

 

It didn’t land on him, didn’t even see him, just jumped and reached toward the beach with its comrades. Taemin scurried back, heart racing. What should he do? He turned and ran onto the beach, yelling the whole time. It wasn’t until he stood before the pirates, pirates from their ship screaming back at them wanting to know what was going on, that Taemin thought perhaps it was a bad idea. He didn’t have his staff, if only he had his staff. There were more skeletons now, and some that still had flesh, and eyes, and those eyes were pitch black and staring at him. Taemin took a step back and the corpse leapt at him.

 

It never laid prize on his flesh. Taemin’s lifted hands came down without a scratch and he stared before at the tall figure he had gotten use to hovering over him. Taemin peaked around him only to feel sick as Minho  slashed at corpses and bones. There was more yelling from the jungle and Taemin saw the captain and thief running with swords in their hands out to meet them along with the other pirates. Could they go back to the ship now?

 

Taemin felt something looming behind him and a shiver ran up his back. He turned his head to see a corpse with flowing gold locks behind him, a fairly kept together corpse. He reached out a hand and clasped onto the back of Minho’s shirt. The first mate reached behind him and grabbed that hand swinging Taemin away from the corpse witch and moving to take Taemin’s place just as her sword dropped in a slash across his chest.

 

Taemin screamed. “Minho!”


	12. “Love is like sword fighting; you have to trust they won't draw blood.”

**Chapter 12**

 

**“Love is like sword fighting; you have to trust they won't draw blood.”**

               

Salty breeze hit Minho’s cheek and moved up to his nose, the fresh smell and feel rousing him from his sleep. He blinked large eyes up at the ceiling, frowning at the lack of shadows on the ceiling. The room was too well lit, it wasn’t his cabin, but a familiar one that he had only slept in a few times when he first came to be part of the crew on _The Locket_. There was a shuffling noise beside Minho  and he turned his head, but saw nothing, but a small burning fire in the room. The first mate frowned at the gold and red flames and tried to sit up. A burning sensation crossed sideways on his chest and he lifted a hand to find rough bandages covering his chest. He sighed and brought a hand to his face, rubbing it and trying to recall where he’d slipped up.

 

Minho  remembered leaving the prince alone temporarily. He shouldn’t have had any place to go, the island being as small as it was, and he seemed sick, had seemed so for the past few days. After handling some of the rowdier crew, he had gone on a search for Key and the thief. It was getting late and, though he had only met the witch Victoria once before, he knew Key’s feelings toward her. She wasn’t a friend, Minho  knew that much, and he had guessed that she was more of an enemy of an enemy and therefore someone they needed to work with. She knew things about the Blue Heavens in the Red, all those bowling cauldrons creating a large catalyst for her to work with. She did terrifying things at night, choosing to work by the light of the moon. When he had come with Key they had gone back to the ship to sleep, and though it wasn’t half as horrible as this time’s had been, it was still a scene Minho  rather not remember, as the body of a witch who should have been dead years ago dance on the beach with corpses she had trapped there.

 

Victoria was crazy, but Minho  would have never guessed she would try to kill them.

 

Minho  had gone back inside the witch’s hut after finding the captain and thief simply dawdling around silently. Initially, he had passed by the couch he’d left Taemin sitting on and had intended to seek out Onew for a possible diagnosis for why the prince seemed ill. (He couldn’t afford for the prince to be sick more than a day for both his libido and the libido of the other pirates on the ship who would take Minho’s not touching him as going soft). However, he stepped back and froze seeing the empty couch then looked outside. The moon was high now, the only safe spots would be here or the ship. They had been all willing to sacrifice the crew on the beach, but he couldn’t let Taemin, wherever the boy had run off to, to be part of the sacrifice. Key wouldn’t be able to get his jewel, either, if the wizard prince was dead.

 

He had run out first, straight to the beach with the crew that were already being slashed down by dismembered dead body parts and skeletons. It was Taemin’s yelling that really allowed him to pinpoint the golden hair almost white in the moonlight among all the slashing swords. Minho  hadn’t thought much of rushing in, before he had meant Key, he had been use to such actions of protection and it was instinct. He slashed his sword at anything they went at him for the prince. At some point he had taken notice of Key and Jonghyun coming onto the beach and perhaps that was when Victoria had arrived as well. He had mildly been impressed when the thief had grabbed a sword swinging skeletal arm and wrestled it to the floor like a dog playing with his bone, retrieving a sword which he wasn’t half bad in using, but truly nothing compared to Key and himself. After that, it had just been that small tug on his fabric, a quick turn, and the rest he couldn’t remember.

 

Minho  moved the blanket from his legs and held his abdomen trying to sit up. He wondered where the prince was, if he had been hurt. The door opened and Minho  froze mid push.

 

 “What do you think you’re doing?” said a voice followed by the clicking of heels.

 

Minho  sighed hearing his captain and sat back down. “I was planning to get up.”

 

“And do what? You’re an idiot. I’ve seen you closer to death than this and you came out without a scratch,” Key said stomping over to the fire and poked it.

 

“How bad is it?” Minho  asked tracing the bandages on his chest.

 

Key hummed as he poked the fire. His head turned toward the window in his cabin that looked out at the top deck and then turned back to him. “Luckily it was just the first few layers of your skin. Victoria doesn’t really know how to use a sword, I don’t know what she was doing.”

 

“She’s crazy, Key. Is she dead?” Minho  asked.

 

“Of course not. I got you and a few of the surviving crew on one of the boats with Onew and then I took the next one with my dog. She can’t leave that island. She’ll die if she does, that kind of magic eats at you as much as you eat others.”

 

“I know that. So the prince is here?”

 

Key turned and looked at his first mate curiously. “Of course.”

 

Minho  started to stand up again. “Where is he?”

 

“Why are you in such a hurry to see him?” Key asked with a grin then turned to poke at the fire some more.

 

Minho  glared at the white clad curve of the captain’s back as he hunched over the fire. “He’s mine. I like to know where my things are and in what condition they’re in.”  

 

“Hmm, if you say so.” The playful atmosphere suddenly left the captain as the stood and put the poker back in its place. “I don’t care how much you want to mess around with that prince, but don’t fall in love with him. I have no intention of keeping him after we find the treasure.”

 

Minho  stood straighter, testing his muscles. He felt like he had been trampled hit around his waist area several times, and if he was right, Key saying Victoria didn’t know how to use a sword meant she probably had clobbered him with it a few times after he’d fallen. “Fine, I won’t fall in love with him if you don’t fall in love with the thief.”

 

Key turned with a snap toward Minho. “I’m not in love with him.”

 

“Your guard goes down with him, Key, it’s not as if I haven’t noticed. It was my job to watch you originally. You don’t usually like people very well people like him.”

 

“You’re like him,” Key said.

 

Minho  moved toward the door of the cabin. “I use to think I was the exception. Tell me where the prince is.”

 

The captain’s eyes moved toward the window then he crossed his arms. “Probably in the kitchen. I left him with my dog and he likes to take him there.”

 

Minho  nodded and left.

 

**@};-------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

“You can come in now.”

 

Taemin jumped hearing the captain’s voice coming from the opened door of the cabin after the first mate had left and flattened himself more to the wall by the cabin’s window.

 

“I know you’re there. Come in, we should talk.”

 

The prince sighed and stepped around the wall to follow Key into the captain’s cabin where he had spent most of the morning. Since last night, he had found it hard to stay away from the first mate, guilt built up strong in his stomach. Minho  had gotten hurt because of him. It was becoming more and more obvious how indebted Taemin was to him, everyday there was something new to be thanking him for. No matter how much the prince hated being indebted to a pirate, the mere abuse of his body didn’t seem like that big of a price to pay for every time Minho  had saved him from either harsher abuse or death.

 

After Minho  had been bandaged up, they were rushed out of the cabin so Minho  could rest. The witch, after slashing Minho’s chest, had laid various hits at Minho  with the blunt end of the sword, one taking prize to the first mate’s head causing him to go unconscious. Taemin had originally gone with the thief to the kitchen to help Onew, but Jonghyun had been called away and when the cook had ventured to the back room, the guilt in Taemin’s stomach urged him out to find Minho. He had sat vigilantly beside the first mate as he rested. He’d spent hours staring at the pirate’s soft flowing dark hair and closed lids that covered his large dark eyes similar to a westerner’s. His chest had been mostly bare other than the bandage and Taemin had occasionally reached out a hand to touch the white fabric, pressing down to watch them ting pink. The more Taemin pressed, the less the bandages came off pink and perhaps he had pressed too hard because Minho  began to stir. That was when Taemin took off, going to hide outside the cabin.

 

As he returned to the cabin, Taemin wondered why he’d run in the first place. He could have stayed there and seen Minho  when he’d woken up and then the first mate wouldn’t be wandering around looking for him now with an aching body. But, he also wouldn’t have overheard the first mate’s and captain’s conversation.

 

The captain moved over to his table and pulled out a chair. He gestured for Taemin to take a seat then moved over to the fire, putting a kettle on it to boil water and added a mixture of leaves into it. Taemin sat and folded his fingers together in his lap, nervous in the solitary presence of the pirate captain. Key stood and grinned at him.

 

“So, prince, I guess you heard all that?”

 

Taemin frowned. His first instinct was to lie because of the immense amount of danger that came off the captain in waves. He nodded instead.

 

“What were you doing sneaking around?” Key asked.

 

Taemin looked up at him, quick to defend himself. “I wasn’t, I just…I wanted to know how the first mate was doing.”

 

The captain smirked, brows rising in interest. “Oh? And why would his well being interest you?”

 

“He saved me. I’d feel guilty if he died.”

 

“He’s a pirate, don’t you hate pirates?”

 

Taemin was thrown off by the question. He wasn’t sure how you were supposed to hate someone who had saved your life more than once. Certainly he hated Minho  for putting him in this situation, for being the hands that kidnapped him and for those same hands touching him in places no one else had, but he couldn’t hate the first mate entirely. “Everyone has redeeming qualities.”

 

Key scoffed. “Oh, don’t give me that bullshit. You might look like one, but I didn’t take you for a real angel. You can’t possibly believe in all that about seeing the good in people. We’re pirates, we’re not good people.”

 

“No, you’re not good people, but you can be good when you want,” Taemin said unfolding his fingers. He steadied himself by placing his hands on the edge of the chair on either side. He felt like he needed to appear strong in front of the captain. He had never really been alone with the man before, and it was overbearing, but he had seen things, particularly when the captain was with the thief. He seemed gentler, weaker, than he did now. Taemin tried to remember that. “Even pirates can do good things every now and then. If they didn’t, they’d be pulled down into hell a lot quicker.”

 

The cabin was silent for much too long for Taemin to be comfortable. Had he said too much? The captain’s heels clicked across the floor and Taemin looked up seeing his shoulders shaking more and more until he could actually hear Key’s laughter. “Yes, yes, I can be merciful if I want. You’re an example of that. I didn’t kill you after all.”

 

“And the thief,” Taemin added. “You didn’t kill him.”

 

The captain froze. The prince watched as, for a split second, his demeanor changed, then he was quickly back into stance. He walked with loud clicks and straight tall back over to his wardrobe and pulled out something glinting silver in the mixture of firelight and the late morning sun filtering through the small cabin window.

 

“But you do hate pirates, yes?” Key asked.

 

Taemin watched as Key wrapped the silver thing in a piece of clothe and turned to him. Taemin’s eyes met Key’s, getting lost in their whirlpool of dark, almost black coloring. He tilted his head thinking such eyes familiar to him. “Yes, even so, I do hate pirates, even more now.”

 

Key took steps closer to him. “How do you feel about my first mate? Do you love him? Sometimes that happens, you trick yourself into loving someone just because they’re the only one you can cling to.”

 

Taemin’s chest tightened at the captain’s words. No, he wasn’t in love, that was to be saved for the peasant girl his father would choose as his wife and he wasn’t about to allow himself to be tricked into thinking his guilt was love. “I’m thankful to him, but I hate being touched.”

 

Key grinned at him. “Good, then I’ll let you in on a little secret. Minho  likes touching you, but he hates royalty.”

 

Taemin frowned. “Why does that matter to me?”

 

“Because I’m going to give you a chance to escape.”

 

The prince sat up more in his seat and stared straight into the captain’s eyes. They still felt dangerous and dark, but they were still, trusting. “Why?”

 

“I like games, my prince.” Key moved until he was standing before Taemin and slowly lowered the wrapped object onto Taemin’s lap. “Since you do not love him, when Minho  comes to you tonight, kiss him in gratitude then seduce him into your bed. When you have him where you want him, stab him. If you can plan this correctly, you can find your staff and a boat and be halfway to Japan before anyone can chase you.”

 

Taemin held a shaky hand over the wrapped dagger and looked up at Key. “Don’t you need me?”

 

The captain shrugged. “I still have your blood and I can find another wizard.”

 

The prince looked back down at the dagger. “Why would you tell me to do this? I could kill him, isn’t he your best friend?”

 

Key shrugged and turned away. “Certainly, but it’s not as if I think you’ll be successful. Besides, I’d like to see him get a second taste of karma without coming out looking like a hero that stupid ex-swordsman.”

 

The pirate’s last words were barely audible to Taemin. He was transfixed with the object in his lap. Would he really be able to go home? To get to his brother without the need for a bloody battle on some nameless beach? It was an opportunity, and Taemin didn’t have many of those. He grasped the sword tightly and stood up, headed to the cabin door. He paused when he heard Key’s voice calling after him.

 

“I never saw you here, Prince Taemin.”

 

Taemin nodded and headed to the first mate’s cabin.

 

 

**@};------------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun wrinkled his nose at the mass of fish guts piled up at one end of the ship. Key had asked him to watch over and help load a new catch of fish. Once the sun had come up, after hours of rocky waves tumbling the ship around, Key had sent some pirates out to fish on the emergency boats they still had left from the run in with the witch on the beach. The thief still found it hard to really understand what had happened there. Who Victoria was and what reasons she would have to kill off Key’s pirates were lost to him, but he figured a dog didn’t need such information. If he was right, they wouldn’t be going back to that island now that Key had what he wanted. It was past dusk already. Jonghyun had spent the day helping haul the catches up, but no one seemed willing to hand him a knife when it came to sorting the fish and gutting the few they’d be eating for the next few days. So, he sat and watched like a good dog with nothing better to do. He expected Taemin to have left the kitchen by now since he had heard the pirates saying the first mate was up and about, had been for the past few hours. He half hoped the prince wouldn’t fight Minho  so hard tonight considering the first mate was wounded. The longer he sat there, though, the harsher the fish smell got. Jonghyun had never really taken to the smell of fish, how something so pungent could come out of something as fresh smelling as the sea.

 

Jonghyun also didn’t take well to swords.

 

The thief raised his hand toward the dying orange of the horizon and stared at the lines that mapped across the smooth skin. He touched each tip of his fingers, rubbing them between the tips of his other fingers and wondered how long ago the calluses from his youth softened. It had been years since he’d yelled a sword. Key had thrown one at him as they chased after Minho, something in the atmosphere telling them there was trouble. It must have been muscle memory that allowed him to catch the hilt of the sword instead of clumsily missing the weapon and slicing his hand opened. It must have also been memory that made him glide his sword half decently in defense. Being a thief didn’t require such skill, Jonghyun only had to glide the appendages that were actually connected to his body. 

 

 Key had told him to stay there until he came to get him. A pout pressed his lips and Jonghyun truly did feel like a dog waiting for his master. But, he thought he was a little better than a typical dog. A typical dog would have been wagging his tail for a scrap of the fish guts as a snack and Jonghyun had no intention on snacking on the bowels of an animal that ate the waste they threw into the sea.

 

The clicking of heels told Jonghyun the captain was on his way. He turned his body to look behind him from his kneeling position at the foot of one of pile that was beginning to smell a little rotten and grinned at Key. The captain only spare him a quick glance before looking at the pile of fist guts with as much distaste as Jonghyun felt if not more. Key stopped a few feet away and made a downward fanning gesture with his hand at Jonghyun.

 

“Come away from there, dog. I can’t have you smelling like fish, I don’t have the water to waste on you on a bath.”

 

Jonghyun immediately stood and followed Key as he started back for his cabin. He paused just inside the room as Key turned, arms crossed and eyes swimming with silver fishes of fear drowning in the dark whirlpool of his eyes.

 

“Lock the door,” the captain said.

 

Jonghyun clicked the lock and took a step farther in.

 

Key moved to his wardrobe and pulled out two swords. He threw one at Jonghyun, and again, it was only muscle memory that allowed him to catch it with a little less precision than last time with the lack of adrenaline running through his body. He held it in his hand and examined the blade curiously.

 

“Are you giving me a sword?”

 

“Why would I give a weapon to my dog? No, we’re going to play,” Key answered.

 

Jonghyun moved his attention from the sword to the captain. “Play what?”

 

“Sword fighting. I saw you, it seems you’re more than a thief,” Key said and pulled his own sword out of its sheath. “Depending how you do, I’ll consider some things.”

 

Jonghyun frowned and took a step closer to Key. The captain’s sword jabbed forward in a practice motion and he stopped. “Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

 

Key pulled the sword back. “Many things are wrong. I just feel like taking chances tonight, playing games.”

 

Jonghyun examined his sword again than Key’s; both blades were sharp and polished. “This is a dangerous game.”

 

The captain sighed. “It seems my favorite games are the dangerous kind.”

 

Key took a step closer to Jonghyun, sword held at his side. Jonghyun stood still, watching the movements of Key’s body, avoiding his eyes. He didn’t want to see that kind of vulnerability in Key. The sword tip pressed lightly into his chest and Jonghyun watched as Key’s lips turned up in a smirk.

 

“Me first then,” the captain said and Jonghyun gasped as he heard the tearing of fabric followed by the light grazing of the sword’s sharp edge against his skin.

 

Jonghyun looked down to see his shirt cut diagonally across revealing the lines of his chest and abs, then down where the sword’s tip rested dangerously close to his crotch. He looked up, meeting Key’s eyes. They were full of those little silver fish, hungry jumping fish.

 

“Your move,” Key said.

 

Jonghyun stood there for a second trying to understand the meaning in Key’s eyes. This wasn’t fear, not only fear. There were too many fish, though, he needed to catch them. He kept his eyes focused on Key’s and dropped the sword. The metal clanking against the wood seemed to ring in the small room. Jonghyun’s chest moved hard up and down as he watched the emotions in Key’s eyes swim away, leaving blank almost black red-brown.

 

Key laughed, short and breathy and tore his eyes away. “Good move, dog.”

 

Jonghyun didn’t expect the hand that moved to the back of his hair and tugged, but as Key’s face leaned in he saw a different emotion swimming in Key’s eyes, an emotion he wanted to catch and keep for his own, to devour in his belly over and over. He felt it erupt as the captain’s pink bow lips smashed against his.

 

This wasn’t really a game, Jonghyun understood that grinning against Key’s insistent lips, but there was something inside the thief that told him he had to pretend it was for the sake of the person’s who’s second move had gone on far too long. Jonghyun made his next move grabbing Key’s thighs and lifting him. The captain came up easy, legs wrapping around Jonghyun’s hips as he backed them up clumsily into a wall. Key seemed insistent on kissing him, lips pressing too hard against his, tongue poking out and licking without entering. It was teasing and the hand tugging on his hair made it hard for Jonghyun to tease back. He groaned and tried to move again, carrying the captain to his bed. They both let out whimpers as Jonghyun threw Key down onto the bed, the captain in surprise, and Jonghyun from the pain of ripping Key’s grip from his head. Jonghyun stood at the edge of the bed and stared at Key, dark eyes swirling, not like whirlpools in the ocean, but storm clouds in the sky. Key licked his lips and moved his eyes to Jonghyun’s stomach and reached one of his booted feet out, heel pressing against Jonghyun’s abs.

 

Jonghyun grabbed the ankle of the boot and pulled it off. Key lifted his other leg and Jonghyun did the same to that boot, tossing them across the room before climbing onto the bed. The captain shifted and moved up to the head board, lips parted in fluttering breaths. Jonghyun reached a steady hand up and tugged on the bow around the captain’s neck. Key’s eyes watched Jonghyun’s hands as he began to remove the captain’s  clothes, the ribbon then the coat, the vest, then the crisp white under shirt. Jonghyun glanced up at Key’s expression, high set cheeks brushed with a dusky pink. He leaned in and kissed the captain’s collarbone, kissed his way down to Key’s stomach. The captain breathe harder with each touch and hissed when Jonghyun’s hand finally came to his belt. Jonghyun undid the silver clasps and moved the white breeches down Key’s creamy white legs.

 

The thief was awestruck by the picture of a naked Key. His eyes traveled up his creamy and shapely thighs, passed his weeping member, to the flat expanse of his stomach and chest decorated by the dusky peaks of his nipples and dip of his collarbones. Key’s face was red, lips still parted, and his lashes half covered the challenging, but urging look in his dark eyes. Jonghyun settled himself between Key’s legs and met his eyes as he lowered his mouth around his member.

 

Key started to moan, hips moving without any hesitation into Jonghyun’s mouth. Jonghyun relaxed his throat, moving with Key, letting the bitter dribble touch the back of his throat. This wasn’t by far his first experience going down on someone, but he couldn’t ever remember touching someone as enticing as Key. He didn’t know what this was, but he was willing to go at the other’s pace, to do anything Key asked of him. He was a dog and he loved his master.

 

“J-Jonghyun,” Key panted out. “You’re…you’re my dog, right?”

 

Jonghyun looked up, perplexed by the question. He moved off Key’s member and nodded.

 

Key started to shift, moving onto his hands and knees. He looked back at Jonghyun and the thief felt his chest tighten at the scared look in the captain’s eyes.

 

“Then do your job,” Key began. Jonghyun caught a slight waver in Key’s body, his arms shaking. He tried to cover it up by inclining his body and lowering to his elbows. “And please your master.”

 

Jonghyun nodded again. He couldn’t deny Key, not with what he was offering both emotionally and physically. He stared at the plush white globes before him and swallowed hard then looked around. There wasn’t anything in close range and the lack of preparation made Jonghyun think perhaps only the captain’s hands were dirty. He grabbed the round flesh, massaged them, and watched Key shake below him. He spread them and moved his face in to lick at the small hole, not guessing twice about its state as Key always seemed pristine. Jonghyun tried not to bring attention to the whimpers the captain seemed to be trying so hard to keep quite, though they all seemed to travel to his own member that strained still trapped in his pants. He spent a long time coating Key’s entrance and stretching it just enough for two fingers. He sat back and moved he fingers inside with one hand as he started to undo his own pants with the other. The captain became silent when he added and third and a fourth just for caution.

 

Key moved his hips away from his fingers and Jonghyun pulled away, stroking himself. “It’ll hurt.”

 

“I know. Do it,” Key responded in a shaky voice, but Jonghyun heard no hesitation in it. He removed his torn shirt and positioned himself at the captain’s entrance. He laid gentle hands on Key’s hips then pushed in with a deep thrust.

 

Jonghyun saw Key reach a hand to grasp the pillow above him. He stayed quiet inside the captain for long long minutes, his stomach twisting with need to move. It had been so long for him, he had almost forgotten the pleasure of being inside someone, and never had the heat felt like this. When the hand slipped loose from the pillow, Jonghyun began to move, but Key only went back to grasping it. He grunted softly and let out gasps. Jonghyun had never had a quieter lover, and tried to match his volume, careful, careful, in each powerful thrust, to give his master what he needed. Without the sound of loud sultry moans, Jonghyun could focus on the sounds of their hips slapping together, of the squelching of his penis making friction with Key’s spit covered insides. It was so much more intimate, Jonghyun thought, anymore quiet, and he would be able to hear the beating of their hearts. Jonghyun felt elated and he moved faster, a hand going to stroke Key. Jonghyun felt so full of everything, he knew he’d come soon, but he knew Key _had_ to come first or he would loose something he was still unsure existed between them yet.

 

The arch of Key’s back and a silent scream that he wished he could have seen from in front, signaled the captain’s end. Jonghyun groaned and let himself loose in Key, coming before the captain had come down from his own ecstasy. Key shifted on the bed, moving forward so Jonghyun slipped out. He curled himself up on the head board and stared at Jonghyun with only what Jonghyun could identify as annoyance. The thief grinned at the captain. Key raised a brow the kicked his leg lightly at Jonghyun’s thigh. Jonghyun slipped off the bed and pulled his breeches on. When he looked at Key again, the captain was wrapped in a sheet facing the wall. Jonghyun shrugged and moved to his usual place at the foot of the bed only to see a pillow resting there.


	13. “A key is simple until it unlocks a great treasure.”

**Chapter 13**

 

**“A key is simple until it unlocks a great treasure.”**

 

The prince sat with his knees curled up to his chest and stared at the door. He had spent the day in the first mate’s room frequently changing where to hide the dagger the captain had given him and also trying to determine where his staff was mostly likely hidden. Taemin had deducted it was buried in the corner of the locked wardrobe on the far side of Minho’s room. Minho  had come into the room soon after Taemin had, but left when the prince faked sleep. He had come back again with food, but his touchiness had Taemin on edge. The prince wasn’t ready give in and let the first mate use his body one last time, he still hadn’t figured out all the kinks to the plan Key had began to forge for him. Eventually, Minho  got fed up and left with the food. He hadn’t been back since.

 

Taemin had no reason to trust Key. He had thought about that fact many times while flitting around the room with the wrapped knife. Honestly, it could be a trap and Taemin would be made to walk the plank into the Mermaid Sea when they turned back around for murdering Minho. Honestly, Taemin didn’t want to kill Minho, but he knew escaping wouldn’t work otherwise. He thought about doing it after the first mate was asleep, but he never knew when Minho  was actually asleep, so during it would be the best opportunity, right when he was at his limit. Then, he’d leave Minho  there on the bed and wait until the other pirates were asleep and use that time to pry the lock opened on the wardrobe, then he’d have to be quick about the boat. From there, Taemin would just have to hope Key kept his word – he was never here.

 

Footsteps clicked down the hall and Taemin fiddled with the edges of his breeches, frayed with his continuous wearing of them. He had considered removing them, but didn’t want to risk another pirate coming in and being ‘tempted’ in a misunderstanding. More shoes moved down the corridor and Taemin’s chest tightened hearing the heavy long steps of the first mate. They stopped a few doors down and he could hear Minho’s voice as the first mate went over something with another pirate. Taemin scrambled with his pants and folded them over the foot of the bed. He ruffled his hair remembering what the whores looked like on the island with tousled hair, and got back in position facing the door, legs brought up in a protective manner. He was supposed to seduce Minho, but it would be suspicious if he suddenly started acting too cooperative. A little eagerness could be considered compensation for Minho’s injuries.

 

If Minho  was going to die tonight, Taemin definitely had to compensate the pirate for that.

 

A hand rested on the doorknob outside and Taemin watched the silver knob turn with a click. The first mate pushed the door opened and entered. His large eyes landed on Taemin’s immediately before looking him over. Taemin tried to make himself more of a protective ball on the bed, but knowing that would also just bring more attention to the fact his legs were bare. Minho’s eyes moved down, the motion bringing the desired reaction. Taemin saw the first mate swallow, double adam’s apple  bobbing with the motion. He locked the door behind him and stepped further into the room.

 

Taemin lifted his head, eyes moving lower, tracing the chiseled lines of the first mate’s chest and abdomen, cut through with the white bandage. His lips tugged down at it. The prince new perhaps better than anyone on this ship just how strong Minho  was, how each of his muscles flexed and moved almost perfectly with powerful motions that made Taemin crazy and jealous. It made him sad to see how such small things could bring someone like Minho  down – and untrained sword. Taemin lifted his hand and stared at the soft lines across it – and betraying hand.

 

“I’m sorry,” Taemin said softly.

 

“For what?” Minho  asked as he  approached the bed.

 

Taemin moved his hand forward so it met the bandage with a soft touch. “I should have been careful. Even if you’re a pirate, I don’t like people getting hurt for me.”

 

Minho  tilted his head. “What about your brother? He’s probably coming after you. He’ll get hurt.”

 

Taemin looked up at Minho  with large eyes. “He’s my brother. I’d get hurt for him, too. You haven’t pledged yourself to me, I can’t accept you getting hurt for me; you have no reason to. I’m just your slave. You can buy slaves, you can’t by brothers or loyal men.”

 

The first mate’s eyes suddenly darkened. He grabbed Taemin’s wrist and pulled it away from his bandaged abdomen. “You’re right, you can’t buy loyal men, or loyal slaves who don’t try to run away when the safest place for them to be is where you left them.”

 

Taemin stared aghast at Minho thought he felt a sting in his chest. “You’re talking about the witch’s island. I didn’t try to run, I was looking for you. I’m not stupid, I knew very well the safest place was in that cabin.”

 

Minho  looked at him confused. “You knew.”

 

Taemin pulled his hand away and nodded. “I was going to warn you.”

 

“Key and I and Onew and all the crew left on the ship already knew. How did you?”

 

The prince gritted his teeth. “You won’t believe me.”

 

“She’s a necromancer, though she’s never tried to kill us before. How did you know?” Minho  repeated.

 

“I dreamt it,” Taemin admitted.  “Every night since the Mermaid Sea I’ve seen dead eyes in my dreams.”

 

“Premonitions?” Minho  asked. “I’ve never heard of it being real.”

 

Taemin met Minho’s amused eyes with a glare. “Make fun if you want, but I was haunted by faded red sails for weeks before you guys came along.”

 

The first mate’s gave turned serious. “Then I believe you, prince. No one but Key knew we were going after you until days before.”

 

Something inside Taemin wield up. ‘I believe you’. That was the first time anyone had ever said that to him, even his own brother doubted his dreams. Taemin stood up on his knees and steadied himself with a hand on Minho’s forearm as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the first mate’s lips. He pulled back, that feeling still heavy in his chest.

 

“What was that?” Minho  asked, licking his lips.

 

“It was something in return for you saying something that pleased me.”

 

Minho  chuckled. “Then I quite like pleasing you if you’ll kiss me. That’s the first time I’ve tasted your lips prince.”

 

Taemin felt his cheeks heat up embarrassed at his own act of gratitude. He jumped when he felt a thumb pressing against his lips.

 

“Since you’ve given me one taste, I want more,” the first mate said then leaned in.

 

Taemin tried to scream at the lips pressing against his, but only got a muffled protest. He pushed against Minho’s shoulders, but, just as every other day, he was overcome perhaps sooner than usual as his brain caught up with him and he remembered his plan. He stiffened as a tongue prodded his mouth and pounded a fist against Minho’s back as it succeeded in moving in and devouring him. He didn’t know what to do with it, the slippery rough muscle moving against his own and touching all these spots in his mouth he thought only food could bring a delicious pleasure to. Confliction coiled in his stomach as Minho’s mouth finally moved away from his and started back to familiar territory making his neck.

 

Minho’s fingers moved to the buttons of Taemin’s shirt and the prince jerked when they were ripped opened and the first mate’s mouth went to his chest. Taemin scratched at the back of Minho’s neck as he abused pink nubs, his legs feeling like jelly. He felt weak and wondered if he wanted to enjoy this last time with the first mate just a little. He gave in a little more, his body arching up into the mouth.

 

A hand moved to stroke his member as Minho  pressed kisses down to it. His lips didn’t meet Taemin’s growing hot flesh, but skipped over it and that tongue that had succeeded in stirring up Taemin’s mind worked magic around his entrance, a feeling Taemin had become use to over his nights with the first mate, but this felt different. It felt good. Taemin fought the pleasure a little less.

 

His heavy breaths were louder than his moans had ever been when Taemin was forced to give into the first mate’s commands of letting him hear him. He groaned to try and cover it up, but it turned into a moan as fingers replaced Minho’s tongue.

 

“Stop…I…I don’t want to,” Taemin protested.

 

Minho  laughed. It was a light sound, not like the authoritative chuckles he usually let out when Taemin refused him of something.

 

“You never want to.”

 

The first mate spread his legs wide, and Taemin instinctively grabbed onto his shoulder. His eyes looked down with the movement and he dug his nails into Minho’s shoulders as he watched the pirate delve inside him. It hurt and Taemin laid his head back on the pillow shivering in the pain that rushed up his spine. He took deep breaths and it was gone sooner than before. Minho  started rocking into him.

 

Pleasure. It washed over Taemin in bigger waves this time as he let himself go for once. His hips snapped up innocently with Minho’s thrusts. It was too much, he didn’t want to be seduced. Taemin clamped his eyes in protest of the assault, and freely moaned when Minho  began asking him to. He wouldn’t look at the first mate until it was time.

 

Minho’s groans grew loud and desperate. Taemin shifted and knew he was close. He moved his hands above his head ignoring his own need for release. With one hand he firmly gripped the pillow and carefully, he slid his other hand under the pillow and felt around for the handle of the dagger. The metal was cold in his hand, a stark contrast to the heat building in his body. He arched as a premature spasm rolled through his body, but he wasn’t quite there. He moved his hips as if trying to get away, but also trying to make more friction. Minho  needed to come.

 

Taemin felt it dribbling inside him, the beginnings. He started to slide the dagger out.

 

“Taemin.”

 

The prince froze, eyes going wide. They meant the fiery gaze of  Minho’s half lidded eyes as he moved in. Those lips that had just called out his name for the first time, so deep and unexpectedly soft moved down over his. Taemin shivered. Minho’s hips moved harder and faster into him. He yelped against Minho’s lips, nipping the bottom plush pillow of flesh.

 

“M-Minho!”

 

He barely heard himself scream the other’s name as his release came first, but he felt the silver of the dagger’s blade slip free of his hand as he moved it to tug Minho’s head back down for another kiss. He road out the pleasure and brought the slosh of Minho’s inside of him.

 

 

**@};----------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

The after taste the dried fish left on Jonghyun’s tongue had his stomach rolling. He had woken early that morning and gone to see Onew about breakfast. The cook said he was only serving the last of the old batch of dried food. Jonghyun hadn’t really paid attention to what he grabbed and wished he would have at least looked down at the food to see what it was before putting it in his mouth. It had tasted fine at first, sweet and fishy, but it was that fishiness that got to him as he remembered the day before watching the new batch of fish to be dried or fermented gutted at the other end of the ship. Or maybe it wasn’t the fish at all, but last night in general.

 

There was a haze around Jonghyun, a bubble he wasn’t ready to pop. He’d had sex with Key last night. It had been anything but perfect, but Jonghyun still thought it was the best he’d ever had. He also had an inkling that part of it might have been the fact the pirate captain was Jonghyun’s first virgin. Key had told him he had never gone past oral with a woman and with how he spoke of boys had Jonghyun assuming he’d never been one let alone had one. It confused Jonghyun and that confusion brought on a throbbing in the back of his head telling him he should have said no.

 

The door behind Jonghyun opened and he looked up, the dried fish between his lips in mid bite. He blinked once then twice at the slightly puffy face of the captain glaring down at him. He bit into the dried meat and swallowed, covering up the churn of his stomach with a bright smile.

 

“Good morning, Key,” Jonghyun greeted only to get the tip of a boot kicked into the bottom of his spine. He sprawled forward on the shipboards with an oomph.

 

“It’s Master to you,” Key said and stepped over him. “What are you doing out here in front of the door?”

 

Jonghyun picked himself up and looked up at Key, pain traveling up his spin. “Guarding.”

 

Key raised a brow at him. “And you can’t do that from inside?”

 

The thief dusted himself off and half frowned half smiled seeing his half eaten dried fish smooshed onto the deck. “I didn’t want to wake you up. You’ve been sleeping…” Jonghyun looked around, the sun already fairly above the eastern horizon, “later than usual.”

 

Key ran a hand through his dark hair. “I sleep as I like. Come dog, I have to wash up.”

 

Jonghyun perked up at the thought of going with Key to wash up then frowned as he assumed he’d be left outside the area to guard against other perving pirates. The captain started to walk and Jonghyun followed behind, frowning as he started to notice how Key’s steps seemed heavier on one leg and unbalanced.

 

“Hey, Master, maybe you should wear flatter shoes.”

 

The captain turned with an offended look on his face. “And why is that?”

 

Lifting his hand, Jonghyun made a gesture up and down Key’s body. “I can tell that …um…you’re limping, sorry.”

 

Key’s face paled and he quickly turned back around. “Walk closer behind me, and next time this better not happen.”

 

Next time? Jonghyun quickly stuck himself to the captain’s back.

 

They started to the stairs, but paused when quick footsteps started up them. Jonghyun put a hand on Key’s arm to pull him back a bit as a pirate rushed past them, a silver dagger in hand. Seconds later the first mate followed by a disheveled.

 

“Minho, what’s going on?” Key asked.

 

The first mate stopped, a hand pressed to the cut across his chest and he gestured toward where the pirate was running. Other pirates started after him.

 

“I woke up with that pirate holding the dagger over me this morning, holding Taemin captive.”

 

“Taemin?” The captain turned his attention to the prince who looked between them all desperately.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the prince said. “I should have hidden it better. The door was locked and everything, I don’t know how he got in, but I’m sorry.”

 

Minho  barked out more orders to the pirates as they tried to corral the potential assassin in then turned to the captain. “He keeps saying this. Key did you give him that dagger? Even if the wound is making me sleep deeper, I would have known if someone unsheathed my sword. I don’t have other weapons in my room.”

 

Key frowned and took a step back, the middle of his shoulder blades meeting Jonghyun’s shoulder. Jonghyun resisted the urge to put a comforting hand on the captain’s back.

 

“I shouldn’t have given you the dagger knowing you wouldn’t succeed.” He turned and waved a hand above his head, voice ringing as he addressed the pirates. “Throw the spy overboard. He’s an idiot for not waiting longer.”

 

“Spy?” Jonghyun asked following Key as he went for the steering deck instead of the washroom.

 

Key ignored him and jumped up, turning the wheel sharply east then sharply west. “Hurry, hurry, throw him overboard.”

 

Jonghyun heard a splash as the spy was dumped by the other pirates. “What’s going on?”

 

“We picked up a spy for Taemin’s rescue in the new recruits from Whore Island. I knew there was one, but I though he’d be dead by now.” Key turned the wheel east then west again. “I made sure to put all the new crew members on the dangerous assignments.”

 

“Where are we going now?”

 

“To get my treasure.” Key turned sharp eyes on Jonghyun. “Go take the prince to get food, keep him there until night then let him comfort Minho  for his mistake and you’ll comfort me for mine, do you understand, dog?”

 

 

**@};-------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun shuffled his feet up the stairs, hands stuffed in his pockets. It was after midnight now. He had stayed holed up with the prince in Onew’s kitchen the whole day only leaving when Taemin complained on needing to relieve himself. The prince had been quiet. Jonghyun would glance over to him when the silence only interrupted by the hacking of Onew’s knife on food got too much for him. Taemin always seemed to either be depressed or starring off into the distance with a pink flush to his cheeks. The expression confused Jonghyun as did the way the prince eagerly got up and went with Minho  when the first mate came to fetch him. Minho  didn’t even have to say anything, the two’s eyes met and then Taemin left. Jonghyun had stayed back for a while longer trying to decide what he wished to do, but was ultimately run out with Onew mentioned he had planned on meeting his boy that night.

 

Taemin was supposed to comfort Minho, and Jonghyun was supposed to comfort Key. Did that make him on the same level as Taemin? Had Jonghyun gone from dog to sex slave? He wasn’t sure if that was a promotion or a demotion. He didn’t like the idea of being what Taemin was. There was no reason to force him to have sex with Key, he’d do it over and over gladly. But, maybe Minho  had succeeded in brainwashing the prince with pleasure. That would mean they were closer to the same, both wanting it, but Jonghyun still thought there was something different there.

 

The thief opened the captain’s cabin door slowly. He poked his head inside first. It was dark other than an oil lamp set next to Key’s bed. The captain was already in bed, one of his shoulders bare, poking out from under his sheet. Jonghyun sighed and approached the bed. He stared down at the sleeping figure of the captain, eyes roaming the shape of his form under the bed before falling onto his face. Key wasn’t asleep. Jonghyun took a step closer to the bed seeing the blacks of Key’s eyes looking at him from the corners of his lashes.

 

“You’re late, dog,” Key said.

 

“Why?” Jonghyun asked.

 

Key’s eyes flickered to the wall and he laid still staring at it for long minutes before shifting in the bed. He sat up and looked at Jonghyun. “Why what?”

 

“You were a virgin, why did you let me do that to you?” Jonghyun asked.

 

The captain sighed. “Was it that obvious?”

 

“It’s not something you can hide.”

 

Key’s hand lifted to tangle in the string he wore around his neck with the whistle and key Jonghyun had caught sight of him wearing once before. He hadn’t had it on the previous night.

 

“Because you’re my dog.”

 

Jonghyun sighed and lowered himself to sit on the edge of the bed. He reached out and untangled Key’s fingers from the string and held his hand between his own. “Key, I don’t want to use you, and I don’t want to be used by you.”

 

Sharp dark eyes met Jonghyun’s and Key’s hand grabbed onto one of Jonghyun’s in the thief’s hold. “If this was just about using someone to relieve my stress, I wouldn’t have to use someone like you. You’re my _dog_ , Jonghyun, do you know why people keep dogs around? They keep them because they work hard, they protect their master, and they don’t get hurt easily. They’re _loyal_. They’re loyal to their master no matter what and in return their master gives them all the love and affection they crave.”

 

Jonghyun blinked, his hand slackening around Key’s. Loyal. He’d shown Key he was loyal to him and in return he got to be with Key, got to love Key.

 

“You’re saying you trust me?”

 

The captain nodded. “Yes.”

 

Trust and love, Jonghyun was sure that’s what a strong relationship was built on, nothing more was needed. Even if these things were coming from opposite sides, Jonghyun felt they would meld together eventually. He gripped Key’s hand tighter and moved in, pressing his lips against Key’s. The pirate captain lifted his free hand to grip the back of Jonghyun’s hair and move his lips with Jonghyun’s.

 

Jonghyun pulled back for air and leaned his forehead against Key’s. “I’ll be your dog, Key, I’ll stay loyal to you.”

 

Key nodded and pulled him back for another kiss. Jonghyun moved more onto the bed and straddled Key’s waist. He delved his tongue into the captain’s mouth, the wet muscles entangling together when they met inside. The sheet slipped lower and lower on Key’s body and Jonghyun moved his hand to chase it down, feeling up Key’s chest. He pinched dusky pink nipples and softly rubbed Key’s flat stomach. Key shivered under him and pulled away with a soft moan.

 

Jonghyun’s lips moved to Key’s neck, sucking lightly on the spots he knew would be visible with Key’s clothes on and sucked harder on the spots that were usually covered. He made a line down one of Key’s shoulders then replaced his fingers with his teeth. Key moved beneath him, a hand still tightly tugging in his hair. Jonghyun grabbed his member still covered by the sheet. He stroked it with the material and Key’s hips moved desperately into his hand. The thief chuckled realizing Key was the type needing to be pleased when making love which matched Jonghyun just find as he liked to do the pleasing. He worked his hand faster and teased Key’s chest more wanting to work the pirate captain up.

 

He wasn’t as silent as the night before, though the sounds Key did make were still soft. Jonghyun looked up caught in awe at Key’s faces. He had a million expressions rolling over his face all different types of pleasure. Key had been trying to hold back the night before and then he’d turned so Jonghyun couldn’t see. Jonghyun planned on watching all of Key tonight. Key had admitted to trusting him, he could trust him to see his expressions, too.

 

Jonghyun moved away and Key let out a dissatisfied groan throwing a small tantrum on his back on the bed.

“Jonghyun~.”

 

Jonghyun dug at the sheet trying to get it off Key’s hips and long legs. He threw it to the floor and settled between Key’s legs, spreading them wide. He started to lower his face, but was stopped when Key snapped his legs shut, knees almost clamping down on Jonghyun’s nose.

 

“No, there,” Key said pointing to a jar beside the lantern on the bed side table. “Onew gave me something. Said it’d be easier.”

 

The thief frowned knowing Key had talked to the cook about it. He reached for the jar and looked inside finding the contents familiar as something he’d used before when involved with a guy who worked in the kitchens of the Russian drug lord. A couple guys that worked there actually. He coated his fingers into the substance and showed them to Key. The captain’s face scrunched up at the sight of the creamy goop on Jonghyun’s fingers and spread his legs slowly.

 

Jonghyun tried to be quick with his fingers slipping one in and being merciless about moving it around, but he moved his other hand to stroke Key’s length to help override the discomfort and the pain that would come with the second finger he added next. Key gripped the pillow above his head at the third, bow lips parted as he breath deeply to calm himself, moans from Jonghyun’s hand, now focusing on just teasing the tip with his thumb, escaping them. He didn’t bother with a fourth like last night and positioned himself at Key’s entrance. Key removed his hands from the pillow and rested them on Jonghyun’s shoulders. The thief took that as his sign to go ahead and he pushed in.

 

Finger nails dug into Jonghyun’s shoulder and he waited, all the way sheathed, for Key to relax. He moved slowly at first then placed a hand on Key’s hip when he started to move faster. Key arched his head back, breaths coming shallow and hard. Jonghyun watched the way his brows furrowed and lips trembled each time Jonghyun shifted his hips for a different angle. The nails didn’t let loose, only dug deeper egging Jonghyun to go faster and harder. Jonghyun worried a bit when he heard the bed creaked and wondered what the pirates would think knowing he was making love to their captain. They didn’t much like Jonghyun, but something he liked about Key was he was smart. Key had probably that hard before last night about many things.

 

Jonghyun felt Key tighten around him. A ripple ran up his body when he saw the captain’s face as he came, head thrown back, lips parted in a silent moan, and eyes half opened swirling in a whirlpool of dark lustful emotions. He grunted a few times and road out his own orgasm as Key writhed uncomfortably under him, coming down from his own. Jonghyun pulled out and settled himself on Key, head on his shoulder wanting to stay there with his Master for a bit longer. He looked up at the key and whistle on the string around Key’s neck.

 

“You weren’t wearing this last time,” Jonghyun said, fingers trailing up Key’s stomach.

 

Key sighed. “I don’t wear it when I feel like I don’t deserve it.”

 

Jonghyun frowned. “What is it?”

 

The captain’s hand came down and clasped over the key on the string. He looked away from Jonghyun. “The key to my treasure.”


	14. “The true meaning of a treasure is more than what it’s worth in gold.”

**Chapter 14**

 

**“The true meaning of a treasure is more than what it’s worth in gold.”**

 

Kai arrived in his cabin ruffling his hair in agitation. It was going on a month now since Taemin had been kidnapped and the prince didn’t know how much longer his father would give him to rescue his elder brother. It wasn’t like Taemin was the heir, but Kai needed him even if their kingdom didn’t. He knew if he went back home there would still be a search party, but he couldn’t trust a ship commanded by someone else to search the seas for the witch prince whole heartedly.

 

Rustling from the bed pulled Kai away from his angry thoughts. His eyes roamed the length of the pale skin of the merman still lying naked in his bed. Though unbound, it seemed the creature had yet to fully grasp the concept of his legs. He had seen him take wobbly steps only to fall down and crawl back onto the bed. Kai guessed it much be harder to learn to walk on a moving ship than it would be had they been on land. The merman looked up at Kai, head tilted and frizzy light brown hair haloing his head.

 

“Something seems the matter, prince of human males,” the merman said.

 

 Kai looked away from Luhan and started to undo the first few buttons of his shirt. “We had a spy. He’s dead by now.”

 

“A spy; that’s someone who betrays for the sake of the other side,” Luhan said.

 

The prince ruffled his hair more. “Yes. He was pretending to be a pirate on that ship. He sent us a crow with a message saying he was going to attempt to rescue my brother on his own. He’s an idiot and probably dead now, so we can’t rely on him anymore.”

 

Luhan shifted more in the bed. “And why do you seem so frustrated about that?”

 

Kai glanced over at the merman. He was sitting with his back leaning against the wall and legs pulled up to his chest finally able to move them even if he couldn’t walk yet. “Because now we won’t know in what direction they’ll go next.”

 

The tinkle of Luhan’s laugh startled Kai. He took a step closer to the bed seeing the merman’s eyes glittering at him.

 

“Don’t despair so much human prince Kai; I can tell you which way they went.”

 

Kai took another step closer and looked down at the merman. “Which way?”

 

The merman lifted a hand and wagged a finger at Kai. “I said I _can_ tell you but not until I know.”

 

Kai gritted his teeth and moved away. “Don’t mess with me, mermaid, I’ll have you tied up again.”

 

Luhan frowned and pulled his legs tighter to his chest. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t. There’s a group of porpoise swimming not too far from us. I can talk to them. That’s the perk of being a merperson, prince, sea mammals are the same as dogs to us.”

 

Kai studied Luhan. It sounded a bit far fetched to him. “They can find the ship for us?”

 

Luhan grinned at him. “They’re also smarter than dogs.”

 

“Then I’ll take you to the edge of the ship and you can talk to them.”

 

The merman shook his head. “I can’t talk to them above water, prince. You don’t seem to understand the way in which we speak beneath the water. I have to be in the water.”

 

Kai narrowed his eyes. “You’ll escape if I let you back in the water.”

 

Luhan returned the look. “I made a deal with you, prince. I’m not going home yet.”

 

“Still, I can’t thrust you in the water. It’s too much of a temptation.”

 

 “Then if I was to give you a temptation of your own, would you allow me to go beneath the surface. I want revenge as much as you want to find your brother.”

 

“What do you mean by temptation?” Kai asked.

 

The merman slowly unfurled himself, long white legs spreading out straight then parting just a little, arms laid neatly by his side looking very much like a helpless doll. His eyes flickered between pitch black and doe brown as he stared at Kai and then his pink lips began to move.

 

“I want to experience all the things a human man would. I hear that some men, even though no children can be made, like to mate with other men. I don’t consider it mating, but I’m sure they do it out of some sort of bond, so if you won’t trust me, will doing that with me make the bond in our deal stronger?”

 

Kai stared at the merman with wide eyes. He was offering himself to Kai. All that pale skin; all that untouched, fantastical, pale skin. The prince would be lying if he said he had no experience. Perhaps not in the full sense of the word, but he had touched women who begged for it, lifted them to his mouth or watched them lower to their knees dripping wet for him. He knew he would be forced to marry young, a princess or a cousin of a princess, and so had kept himself chaste in that way at least to give his future wife that much fairness. But, how could he resist a mermaid, even a male one, better that Luhan was male even as Kai wouldn’t have to worry about bastard children or even having a child like Taemin, unwanted, but still legitimately a prince with rights to the throne.

 

The prince cleared his throat and approached the bed. “You’re offering me something I can’t say no to. If you’re truly as pure as you say you are then I’ll agree to this on another condition.”

 

Luhan shifted on the bed. “What is it?”

 

Kai placed a knee onto the bed. “You’ve given me a way to keep my promise to you, to let you learn. I’ll take you back to my kingdom as a consort. There’s no rules against male consorts in my kingdom, and as long as I still marry, my father can’t turn me down for asking for this.”

 

The merman lolled his head to the side. Kai watched as a pink flushed started to spread across his skin. “A consort is a mistress.”

 

“A legal mistress.” Kai lifted a hand and touched the pink that spread across Luhan’s collarbone.

 

“Then I will feel pleasure and learn things?” A smiled spread across the merman’s face crinkling his eyes and catching Kai off guard. “How can I say no to that? We’re natural pleasure seekers, prince, but you can only have me this once on the boat. I want to learn to walk after I talk to the porpoises.”

 

“Agreed,” Kai said then quickly leaned in and captured the mermaid’s lips.

 

 The merman’s lips were chapped, but soft, better than Kai remembered them feeling when Luhan kissed them to seal their deal in the first place. The creature struggled for a minute as Kai attacked him, but quickly pressed his lips back, arms coming to wrap around the prince’s neck. Kai licked Luhan’s lips and shivered hearing the creature let out a surprised gasp then delved in. Luhan wiggled beneath him, legs moving against him desperately, and by the way the merman’s length grew and thrust against Kai’s clothed crotch, Kai figured he was trying to resemble the movements he would have made against a female mermaid if he had his tail.

 

Kai nipped Luhan’s lips making the creature shiver and long fingers tugged on his dark hair. The prince moved his mouth to the length of the merman’s long neck and placed many red marks upon it, watching with slight fascination how the water made skin didn’t bruise as easily and so he could work at it harder. He bit through the skin, a few drops of blood rolling against his lips and the merman arched up hard with a pleasure Kai, muttered in a language Kai could barely comprehend as a language at all.

 

The prince deducted Luhan had moaned out a ‘yes’; he also deducted that the merpeople’s kink was to be rough and that suited Kai just fine.

 

Luhan made desperate sounds, hips moving up against Kai’s until the prince moved back. Kai removed his shirt and pants and settled between the merman’s legs. He kissed roughly up Luhan’s stomach and chest, nipping and sucking hard on rosy nubs. Luhan’s fingers scratched at the back of his neck and Kai understood in the back of his mind why so few survived mating with a mermaid. Out of the water they were as threatening as any other human, but underwater they had claws and teeth the could rip through flesh like a shark, and pleasured to this extent, Kai figured he would have had his head clawed off from the rest of his body by now.

 

Kai placed three fingers at the merman’s lips. Luhan looked at him with swirling and confused eyes.

 

“You have to coat these,” Kai said. “You’re male; you won’t be wet like females are. That’s how men do it.”

 

“I’m…” the merman started, breaths heavy, “I’m to act as the female?”

 

“Yes, you’re the consort.”

 

Luhan flicked his tongue out then pulled Kai’s fingers into his mouth. He sucked them each, coating them, biting them even. Kai pulled them out when he link throbbed painfully. He pushed a finger in and started to move it and frowned when the merman gave out an almost angry sound. Kai moved his other hand to grab one of Luhan’s and placed it around the merman’s length.

 

“Stroke,” he commanded. He helped guide Luhan’s hand up and down his length and let go of the merman’s hand once it seemed he was lost in the rhythm of touching himself.  The prince pushed in more and more fingers working the mermaid loose. Luhan was already withering in frenzy by the time Kai pressed his tip to his entrance.

 

“I’m making this deal now, Luhan,” Kai said, but only got a moan in return. Kai pushed in and the merman’s whole body shook then went rigid and he settled into a fit of whimpers. The prince settled himself all the way in and grabbed Luhan’s hand gone still on his member. He started to help him stroke himself again and as soon as he heard a moan, Kai started moving.

 

The friction of being inside someone was better than having someone take him in their mouth, Kai thought. It was rougher and he could go deeper without the worry of his partner not being able to take him and their gag reflex kicking it full force. The prince snapped his hips happily into the merman and slowly Luhan began to writhe again, hands clawing at Kai’s shoulders as he pulled the prince down toward him. His eyes were closed, but Kai watched him anyways, each small flutter of his light colored long eye lashes and the twitch of his rounded nose and parting of his pink lips. Kai felt the boiling of pleasure heating up his stomach and moved harder and faster into Luhan wanting to get the mermaid to reach his own end.

 

He leaned down and pressed his lips to Luhan’s when he couldn’t take it anymore. Kai felt the merman gasp against his lips and arch against him. Seconds before coming inside Luhan, Kai felt the wetness of the merman’s release flow between their bodies. He settled himself on top of Luhan, breathing hard. The merman made strange cooing noises that he figured was probably something he would do for his mate as a comforting affectionate mechanism.

 

Kai liked it.

**@};---------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

The waves rolled in blankets of blue and white, gray fish popping up to the surface every now and then to say hi. Jonghyun leaned over the railing of the ship to watch them. It had been two days since they’d thrown the spy overboard, and since that night, Jonghyun had not laid in Key’s bed again. He didn’t worry about it as the captain still seemed affectionate, the pillow never leaving its spot on the floor, but it didn’t make Jonghyun feel antsy. With the captain so close, Jonghyun had to fight the urge to reach out for him and remind himself what his fingers felt like pressing into Key’s hips. He was beginning to understand the first mate’s addiction to Taemin now.

 

Key was standing at the front of the ship, one leg lifted onto the lift that dropped to the beak where the figurehead of a woman was carved. Jonghyun worried that he might fall, but the captain seemed completely calmed as he stared out into the water, one hand clamped over the spot under his shirt where the key rested. It was past noon, the sun high in the sky. Jonghyun’s stomach had been growling at him for the past two hours, but he hadn’t gathered the courage to go over to Key to ask about lunch. None of the other pirates seemed to mind and Jonghyun figured he probably could have just gone down to Onew and gotten a snack, but Key hadn’t eaten yet either. Jonghyun finally leaned off the railing, saying goodbye to the fish, and headed over to Key.

 

“Hey, Master,” Jonghyun called out when he was still far enough away, not wanting to alert the captain suddenly and cause him to fall.

 

The captain turned his head, sharp eyes staring down at Jonghyun with a calculated look that Jonghyun liked to think as affectionate. “What is it, dog?”

 

“Are you hungry? I can go run down and get you a snack.”

 

Key tilted his head at Jonghyun as if trying to decide why Jonghyun would offer to do something to him. His expression became bored probably realizing this was part of a dog loving his master, and moved back from where he was standing. Key’s heels clicked the short distance it took to stand next to Jonghyun.

 

“We’ll get food once we land,” Key answered and lifted a hand to Jonghyun’s shoulder, pushing him to look in one particular direction. He pointed out across the water. “Only a few miles more and you’ll be able to see an island out there, lush with palm trees and cliffs.”

 

Jonghyun looked out across the water. All he saw were the blue waves touching the even bluer sky, but he could imagine the black spot that would turn greener the closer they got. He frowned and glanced side ways at Key.

“Hey, I want to ask something,” Jonghyun said.

 

Key pulled away from him and dug inside his jacket pulling out a small hand telescope. “Quickly, speak your mind then.”

 

“It seems like you know exactly where the treasure is and you have the key already, so what was the point of kidnapping Taemin and visiting that witch?” Jonghyun asked.

 

The captain sighed and folded his telescope back up. He tapped it against the palm of his hand, not answering for a few minutes.

 

“Key,” Jonghyun prompted.

 

“Master,” Key corrected then slipped the telescope back into his jacket. “Of course I know where the treasure is, it’s my treasure.”

 

“You buried a treasure and you’re going back to get it?” Jonghyun asked confused.

 

“No, it’s my treasure by birth rights,” Key said. “It’s my inheritance, but pirates don’t really follow the rules of inheritance.”

 

“Inheritance? So was it like your dad’s?” Jonghyun asked.

 

“Yes, and so was this ship.”

 

Jonghyun’s eyes widened and he studied Key’s face; it was calm, though lips a bit tight.

 

“He gave this to you then?” It didn’t seem right since Jonghyun knew Key had had to struggle to get the respect of the crew.

 

Key chuckled. “Of course not, I had to kill his first mate to gain the title of captain for this ship. I had to kill many more to keep it. My father wanted me to be a whore like my mother. My mother was beautiful, you know, so beautiful my father made her his exclusively, but after I was born, she killed herself because my father found a lover even more beautiful, a lover with golden hair.”

 

“A witch,” Jonghyun guessed. “He carried a witch on board with him?”

 

“Yes. She was a witch that specialized in curses. That’s why this ship will float even if there’s only one board left, and why simply knowing where the treasure is won’t work.” Key lifted his hand to his chest where the key was. “You see, my father gave me this key when I was young. He knew I was his child and paranoid about others finding his most valued treasure, so he gave it to the child he thought would be stuck on the whore’s island. But, you see, I hated my father, and I hate the whores, so I taught myself to fight. I was only a year shy of being put to work at the brothel when my father died. The ship came and I challenged his first mate. I killed my first man when I was only fourteen.”

 

“It…must have been hard,” Jonghyun said. He remembered being fourteen, back when he was still so naïve and unhappy.

 

“Not really. Killing people isn’t hard; it’s deciding who should live that is. Killing the first mate wasn’t enough, though. I had to ransack the whole ship for the map. It was coded, too, took me months to break it. A whole year of having sleeping with my sword under my pillow went by before I found the treasure, but then the blasted thing was cursed. But, I knew where it was and I had leads on how to break it, so I could continue being captain. They can’t take that title away from me now, and they can’t take this ship, but I still have to open that treasure, do you understand?”

 

Jonghyun nodded. His heart was painful as it beat in his chest. “I’ll help you find it, but why the prince?”

 

Key smirked and Jonghyun cringed seeing it, like he’d been poked with a needle.

 

“Because the witch was taken away when she was still young, twenty years ago, by the king of Jeju to be his consort.”

 

Something cold, like pity, ran through Jonghyun’s body. Taemin’s mother was responsible for the curse on this ship and the curse on Key’s treasure. The ship suddenly rocked and Key jumped back to his previous position, taking out his telescope. A smile of pure bliss crossed his lips and Jonghyun couldn’t help but smile even with all his mixed emotions seeing it.

 

Key reached down and handed Jonghyun the telescope. “Look dog, we’re almost there.”

 

 

**@};---------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

The jungle on Key’s island was thick with vines and leaves that stuck to the top of Jonghyun’s straw hat, falling off the brim in clumps that startled the thief. He followed close behind Taemin, who followed behind Minho  leading the group of pirates they had taken off the ship with Key. The first mate was put in charge of chopping down the foliage that was too difficult to walk through. Jonghyun took a step back every time he whipped out his sword afraid that his long quick strokes would be too much for the sword and it would come flying backwards. They made quick time in walking. Though Key had what looked like an old copy of a map in hand, he directed them with only minor glances at it. More than once had Jonghyun almost run into Taemin. The prince’s head stayed lowered staring at the ground and his steps were hesitant than quick as if he was walking over a pit of lava. Jonghyun guessed the wizard prince didn’t often step foot into the wild, and Jonghyun would be lying if he said he was use to it. His type of wild was the brick buildings of his ungoverned island flowing with seas of pick pockets that left you penniless faster than piranhas could devour the flesh from an unfortunate step.

 

The pirates were relatively calm. Jonghyun heard muttering from the very back, but mostly he just felt the hum of excitement. He figured this was the highlight of a pirate’s life, getting treasure. And this treasure was apparently one many pirates wished to have – the treasure of a pirate who brought fear onto the sea with sails dyed in red who happened upon a magical beauty in his old age. He wondered if Taemin’s mother, who couldn’t have been more than a girl at the time, had loved Key’s father even as a raisin skinned old man with only his sword working for him. He wondered if he should refer to the dead captain as such.

 

They emerged on the edge of a rocky cliff over looking a waterfall. Key stopped and held his hand out. Minho  and he shared a look before Key pocketed the map and went to the edge then jumped. Jonghyun rushed to the edge, stopped from falling over only by the first mate’s sword threatening to cut him in half if he went any further. He peered over the cliff instead to see Key hanging there. He looked up and rolled his eyes.

 

“Minho, tell the dog to come next then let a pair of the crew, and then you and the prince,” Key said then let go. Jonghyun’s eyes widened only to squint in confusion with the captain disappeared.

 

“You heard him. There’s a cave, so aim correctly or you’ll fall into the waterfall and we’re not going to wait for you to find your way back here if you decide to go for a swim,” Minho  said.

 

Jonghyun nodded and moved under Minho’s sword. He climbed to the edge then slowly down, looking under him for the cave. He felt something grab his food and looked down to see Key jumping up to grab him from a hole among the rocks.

 

 “This way, dog,” Key called out to him. Jonghyun let go and tumbled down falling against the pirate captain. “You’re not a lap dog, get off.”

 

Jonghyun scrambled off and helped Key back up then dusted himself off. He followed Key as the captain started down the tunnel of the cave, hearing the pair of pirates, Minho, and Taemin, come down after them. Key stopped when they reached a small crevice in the wall and stuck an arm through.

 

“This way,” he said and started to slide through.

 

 Jonghyun grinned seeing Key struggle to get his hip area between the thin crevice, bottom almost too perky for the area. He regretted his amusement the moment he moved through, chest too wide he felt his shirt rip a bit with the friction. He felt a little better seeing Minho  have the same problem, but easier access as the tall first mate got on his tip toes to move his chest to a wider part of the crevice. Jonghyun didn’t even pay attention to the prince’s difficulties feeling bitter.

 

They continued on, down another tunnel then stopped when it became pitch black. Jonghyun felt Key reach back and felt another hand reach forward to greet it. Light suddenly filled the area. Minho  stood to one side with some kind of lighter in hand having lit a torch. The first mate moved back to slide the lighter back to Key. Key took the torch and waved it in front of him. Jonghyun saw something glint and moved with Key as he started forward. His eyes widened seeing the pile of gold presented before them. Piles and piles of the shiny currency from all different sorts of Easter kingdoms were scattered about the area along with the miscellaneous piece of jewelry here and there.  There was only one chest, though, a small one placed on top of the highest pile of gold.

 

The prince yelped as Key grabbed him and dragged Taemin to the chest. He held Taemin’s wrist with one hand while he fished out the key from around his collar with the other. Key motioned from Jonghyun to approach, and the first mate did, pulling out his sword. Taemin’s eyes looked at Minho  with fear and Jonghyun would have tried to comfort the prince with a smile, but he was just as confused at the prince was. He heard Minho  mutter ‘it’s just a slit’, before sliding the tip of his sword high on Taemin’s forearm. Key held Taemin’s arm over the Key, drops of the prince’s blood landing onto its tip. The captain pushed Taemin back into Minho’s arms and slid the Key inside the box. Minho  handed Taemin the paper along with a piece of gold picked up from the pile.

 

“Your catalyst was a golden staff, so a simple gold coin should work for something so small,” Key said and motioned for the prince to speak.

 

Taemin looked at the piece of paper and his light voice slowly began to feel the area.

 

“ _My Most Beloved, taken from me by my enemy,_   _I vow myself to you and lock away the treasure you found more precious than my love. You were the blue goddess among our sea of blood, the heaven in the hell of the sea, and only you could ever wear this treasure fashioned for the Queen of the Sea, Calypso herself. Here, the Blue Heavens in the Red will stay until revenge is taken on the king you dared steal you away.”_

 

Jonghyun frowned when Taemin stopped reading. The words they had taken from Victoria seemed less like a magic spell and more like a love note. Key turned the key and Jonghyun heard the click. Slowly, Key raised the lid. The anticipation from the pair of pirates that came down with them rolled into Jonghyun and he shuffled his feet a bit wondering what the treasure Key had been looking for all these years looked like. Key turned holding it in his hands. A necklace – a thin gold chain with a large medallion on the end; in the middle of the medallion was a large heart shape in the deepest blue Jonghyun had ever seen, lapis lazuli, and millions of tiny rubies covered the rest of the medallion. The captain lifted it, eyes scrutinizing the piece of jewelry then looking at all of them gathered. His eyes met Jonghyun’s for a minute then moved and he stared down at Taemin. Key’s heel’s clicked against the gold pieces littering the ground as he approached Taemin. He unclipped the necklace and wrapped it around Taemin’s neck, settling it there.

 

“This is yours, take it for your troubled,” Key said and stepped back, looking around the rest of the cave. “We’ll leave the gold hear for now, we still have plenty on the ship.” Key pasted Jonghyun and the two pirates who were looking at the pile of gold longingly and headed back for the mouth of the cave. “Minho, make sure to remark our signs so pirates no they’re dead if they try to take my gold.”

 

Jonghyun hurried after Key confused. “Master, Master.”

 

“What is it?” Key asked waving the torch around to find the way out.

 

“Why did you give Taemin the necklace?”

 

Key stopped and turned. His dark eyes danced with so many emotions, but Jonghyun was able to get a sense of what they were as the fire from the torched flickered in them.

 

“I planned to throw the Blue Heavens in the Red into the ocean originally, but it seems it was that witch’s, so it’ll piss my father off more if I give it to the kid she had with another man, and a much younger far better looking man, I might add.”

 

“Your father’s dead though,” Jonghyun said.

 

Key grinned at him then quickly started walking to the exit. “Aren’t I ballsy for screwing with the dead?”

 


	15. “The things done for love are hard to do.”

**Chapter 15**

 

**“The things done for love are hard to do.”**

 

The waves washed over the mop of brown hair that bobbed in and out of them, locks turned the color rock now densely filled with the weight of water. Kai watched as Luhan swam between the sleek bodies of the blue-gray porpoises. He was half playing and half doing his job, but Kai didn’t have the heart to yell for him to focus, he didn’t have the heart for a lot when it came to the merman. Kai’s fingers ached to reach out and make that sleek pale body his again, to watch it writhe between his own body and the bed. He clutched the ship railing as Luhan made a leap with one of the porpoises.

 

“Do you think it wise to keep letting it in the water?” Suho asked observing the merman at work.

 

“He asked to check how it was going in locating the ship,” Kai said. “He did fine the first time.”

 

“But, your highness, communicating with dolphins – well, it seems absurd.”

 

Kai glared at the navy captain. It was people with such unbelieving thoughts that allowed for Taemin to be captured so easily. He had been one of those people. “And so does having a merman in the first place.”

 

“Alright, but what do you intend to do with him after we’ve rescued your brother?”

 

A smirk tugged at Kai’s lips. “He’ll be my consort.”

 

The navy captain’s hand came down in a loud slap against the rail of the ship. “You can’t be serious; you don’t even have a queen!”

 

“I’ll get a queen, but don’t you think a king with a mermaid as a consort would be thought of as powerful?”

 

Suho’s lips pressed tight together, before flattening out in a smile. “Of course, Your Highness. Many kings will come just to see it, but will your father agree?”

 

“I’ll marry someone just below the status of a princess, I’ll tell father to start the preparations for a wedding so I can have a bride as soon as the next season starts. Then I won’t have to worry about a princess being outshined by a consort like father was. If she’s not a princess in the first place, she will feel lucky enough to even be my wife,” Kai said. He didn’t remember Taemin’s mother as the king’s consort had died before Kai was even two. He had seen a picture of her hanging up in the king’s bedroom chamber, a small portraiture stuffed into the corner with her belly round. She had long gold hair and Taemin’s nose, the only features she shared with Taemin. There had been stories of where she came from, most of them calling her a whore so beautiful she could have been the Helen of the East. He knew his mother hated her, a princess from the mainland, six months outshined from having full glory over the witch. The witch had gotten sick; something to do with not being used to land. Where had she come from?

 

“You seem to have all of this well planned out, my prince,” Suho said.

 

“I’m to be king, after all, I have to make sure I plan everything down to the last detail,” Kai said.

 

“You’ll still be so meticulous even if you’re seduced into making such plans?”

 

Kai smiled, watching as Luhan swam back to the boat waiting in the water, two sailors on it ready to help pull him up. “Indeed I was seduced.” He turned to look the navy captain straight on. “Tell me you wouldn’t have given in.”

 

Suho’s eyes flickered to where the boat was slowly being lifted, Luhan’s form shifting back into naked human flesh as he wiped the water off with a towel. His eyes moved back to meet Kai’s. “I would have given in much sooner, my prince.”

 

Kai lifted a hand and patted Suho’s shoulder before heading over to the boat. He unfolded a long shirt from where he’d tucked it under his arm and held it out. Luhan staggered over to him, legs shaky after just shifting even though he’d made great headway in learning to walk freely. The prince caught him with one arm and helped to dress the merman, ignoring the looks the navy sailors gave him. There was nothing to be ashamed of, he felt, if they knew he had delved into sleeping with a male, Luhan was a beautiful creature, male or female, human or not. He placed a gentle kiss on Luhan’s forehead and the merman made a soft cooing nose before moving behind him, eyes curious as, even though he could walk with help, he wasn’t often let outside of Kai’s cabin.

 

“What did they say?” Kai asked.

 

Luhan hummed and wrapped a hand around one of Kai’s arms. “They say a monster with wings the shade you’re looking for went this way between the sun and its bed towards an island when the sun was still waking. It left, but didn’t go far almost as soon as it got there, but it dropped two legged people like you off.”

 

The prince listened to Luhan’s words carefully; trying to dissect what he guessed was the best translation the merman could give him from what the porpoises said. He gestured for Suho to come over and relayed the message to him.

 

“The pirates came this way earlier and left, but they dropped quite a few people off on an island.”

 

“An island?” Suho asked. “Treasure, do you think?”

 

“Treasure or a safe haven; either way, I say we head there first.”

 

Suho saluted Kai then hurried off to tell the rest of the crew. Kai looked around then started to pull Luhan toward the cabin. The merman tugged his arm.

 

“Wait, can’t we stay out here?” Luhan asked.

 

“Why?”

 

Luhan turned to look at the sea. Kai wondered if he was longing to go back.

 

“I don’t want to get comfortable right before I kill someone.”

 

Kai was surprised by Luhan’s words. The merman turned and looked at him with dark eyes.

 

“I want to attack them from the water. Will you let me?”

 

The prince nodded. “I’ve decided to trust you. Kill as many as you want.”

 

Luhan smiled and turned to watch as they approached the island where Kai hoped his brother was.

 

 

**@};-----------------------------------------------;{@**

 

The walk back to the beach was much less filled with excitement, replaced by murmuring from the other pirates behind them. Why had they not brought back the gold? Why was the prince wearing the Blue Heavens in the Re? Jonghyun felt himself bristle wondering if mutiny would be something to worry about once out to sea. He could handle a sword, but not against the ten pirates here or the other twenty something still on the ship.

 

Key stopped as they made their way through a different path back to the beach. He stood there silently for a few moments before turning to glare at the pirates.

 

“Are you a bunch of old women? Stop gossiping and pay attention. This is my island, but there are creatures that will slit your throat before I do.”

 

The pirates grumbled, but quieted down.

 

 Jonghyun walked next to Key on his left, Minho on his right. He didn’t pay much attention to the prince walking behind them, focused more on watching Key’s face from his peripheral. There was something about his words that made Jonghyun feel like he wasn’t satisfied. Perhaps he had expected more than a simple necklace in that box, or maybe he had hoped that he was still missing a piece. Since he was fourteen, Key had been in search of a way to open that box and anger his dead father. Jonghyun tried to think how he would feel accomplishing that. You really couldn’t anger someone that existed as no more than a memory. He would have felt unsatisfied. What was there for Key to do now? Sail the seas like any other ship. Jonghyun definitely wanted to know.

 

Deep in thought, Jonghyun jumped when he heard Taemin yelp. They all turned to see him struggling with some of the rowdier pirates who tugged his hair and stroked the necklace Key had placed around his neck. Jonghyun stopped and reached a hand out to tug Key to a stop as well. Key turned, first with annoyance at being stopped, then with anger. He moved his hand to his sword, but Minho  was faster, pointing the sword between the pirates and the prince.

 

The pirates’ brows furrowed in a mix of anger and fear. “Come on, Minho, we were just playing with him. We wanted to see the Blue Heavens in the Red.”

 

“Minho, put your sword away,” Key said and stepped up. He lifted a hand to the first mate’s arm, tugging it down and slowly Minho  followed the motion and sheathed his weapon. Key reached out and tugged Taemin away from the pirates, throwing him at Minho  then looking each of the pirates in the eye. “You guys are wasting time. Do you want me to explain? I won’t be held responsible if you’re all killed because you needed to hear my voice and not just thrust my actions.”

 

“Captain, you have to explain to us some things; we can’t blindly follow you like dogs all the time.”

 

“Dogs don’t follow blindly, you’re lower than dogs if you do,” Key said, his eyes flickering over to Jonghyun and the thief puffed himself up a bit taking the captain’s comments as a compliment to him. “There are piles of gold waiting for us to retrieve another day when it’s safe to come here again, I don’t need a necklace made for a woman. I also don’t need this prince anymore. I gave the necklace to the prince and the prince to my first mate. That’s his share of the treasure. You will all get your shares a day when we’re not being chased by a royal navy.” With that, Key turned on his heels and started back to the beach, steps quicker this time.

 

“I heard it was the previous captain’s most precious item,” a pirate said from the back.

 

Key didn’t falter a step when he answered. “Say aye if, given a book with all that is known about math and science today in it, you would use it to make a fire before you would willingly read it.”

 

“Aye!” came the response almost unanimously.

 

‘That’s what I thought, now everyone shut up. I hear something.”

 

Jonghyun paused and tried to listen for what Key had heard. At first there was nothing, then he could hear the faint sound of leaves rustling only a few yards away from them. He turned his head, eyes wide, as he saw the pale blue and gray of the Jeju royal navy moving through the trees not far from them. Key made a shushing motion and started to creep away. Minho  did some hand gestures Jonghyun didn’t understand before going after Key, tugging Taemin along. Jonghyun hurried after them, along with five of the ten pirates they had with them. The other five slowly started to head a different way. They had only moved a few meters before the yells and clanking of a fight reached them. Jonghyun spun around trying to search for the source of the sound, his thief instincts telling him to quickly find the danger than run a different way from it. A hand grasped his arm and pulled him along as they started to run.

 

They came upon the beach much too soon. Jonghyun’s heart beat erratically when he saw sailors destroying their boats; it stopped completely when he saw the ship was gone.

 

“Key, we’re stranded,” Jonghyun said.

 

“No, I told Onew to take the ship away for a few hours encase something like this happened,” Key said then slowly unsheathed his sword. “We’ll have to retreat into the jungle and hide out until night time. I wanted to return the prince without having to kill stupid hard headed royals; seems I’ll have to feed my sword instead.”

 

Minho  nudged Jonghyun. The thief turned to him only to have a sword shoved against his chest. “Protect him,” he muttered.

 

Jonghyun nodded and unsheathed the weapon. Key slowly started to back track in hopes no one had seen them, but the yells from before quickly headed this way.

 

“Those fools,” Key growled as two wounded pirates from the group rushed passed them.

 

“Charge?” Jonghyun asked.

 

Key nodded and held his sword up then headed out, the other following after quickly.

 

They had left only a few pirates on the beach and Jonghyun saw most of them already died up, a couple dead from fighting. The number of navy sailors  outweighed them and Jonghyun hoped Minho  and Key’s sword fighting abilities truly could rival ten trained sailors each. He ran just behind Key, glancing around to see who was coming at them. One of the sailors met Key’s sword with his own and Jonghyun plastered his back to Key’s when another tried to come up from the back, blocking him though shakily. Minho  was off by the boats with Taemin hidden behind him. Jonghyun could only half guess what the prince felt at the moment, given that necklace then the chance to get away. He must have been speechless in relief. The thief almost laughed when Taemin was pushed backwards into one of the boats, but any amusement died quickly when he saw the figure that leapt up out of the water behind Minho.  

 

Two sailors already lay wounded on the ground around them, not able to get up. Key hissed for him to help Minho, and seeing as both those sailors had not been once Jonghyun had gone up against, he ran off. Certainly Minho  had not seen what was behind him. As soon as he warned the first mate, he’d come back to Key, Jonghyun promised.

 

Sailors rushed him as he ran across the sand, golden specks flicking up and threatening to enter his eyes. He stopped countless times to throw them off him, blocking their swords with his own, all the time watching the brown figure swimming closer and closer to the edge of the tides where Minho  was walking back into. Jonghyun hurried. His lungs felt scratchy by the time he reached Minho, the first mate ankle deep into the sea. He saw the creature slide against the current headed straight for them and pushed Minho  out of the way. Jonghyun felt something slash at his angle and swung his sword down. The creature jumped up, hissing at him with teeth like a shark’s, before retreating back into the water where a few of the other pirates hand tried to escape to. Jonghyun didn’t have time to think about them. He hoped Minho  had seen and started back onto the beach.  Key was already fighting against two sailors and Jonghyun could see a third coming at him from behind. He rushed forward, swinging around to block the sword for meet the flesh and clothe of Key’s back. His ankle stung and he winced, stumbling a bit. His arms lowered, not meeting the sailor’s sword, but the stiff wool of his uniform and then the soft meat of his belly.

 

Jonghyun’s eyes widened as he saw read dribble from the sailor’s mouth before he collapsed to the ground. He didn’t move, eyes dead. Jonghyun felt a chill run up his body and he dropped his sword.

 

How long had it been since he’d last killed someone?

 

 

**@};------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun frowned as the chains were locked on his wrists. Of course they wouldn’t kill them; royals had to go by a moral code. The thief almost wished he had one of those, one that would have kept him from killing that sailor. Indeed, it had been an accident, but Jonghyun still wished he’d had the skills to prevent his slip up from being deadly. Key and Minho  hadn’t killed anyone. Jonghyun had realized that and understood the reason why. Ultimately, they were bound to be captured by Taemin’s rescuers, if no one was dead by their hands then their punishment would be lessened or at least the trial would go on longer. The other pirates were mostly dead; they didn’t matter, just the captain, his first mate, and unfortunately Jonghyun probably thinking he was third in charge. Jonghyun would have laughed at that thought if he had the energy to.

 

At least it was he who had killed someone and not Minho  or Key.

 

Taemin had been rescued from the boat Minho  had pushed him into. A boy with skinned that looked touched by the sun and dark hair had came on another boat from their ship once the fighting had mostly stopped and fished the wizard out. He’d held his brother tight to him and gone back without too many words to the rest of the sailors. The creature Jonghyun had seen, the merman, followed his boat and boarded it before they reached the ship.

 

The sailors jostled them onto another boat, swords ready to slash out if any of them resisted. They sat in a circle. Minho  stared at the ship they were headed to, eyes scanning the railings. Jonghyun frowned wondering if he was looking for the wizard. Key sat quietly, head bent. It worried Jonghyun a bit to see the captain so meek. What was he thinking?

 

“Why did you do that?” Key whispered.

 

Jonghyun perked up and scooted closer. Do that? He bowed his head to Key. “I’m sorry, Master.”

 

“You can’t die on me yet, understand,” Key said.

 

Jonghyun nodded. He didn’t plan to die. Even if he had to bring up the time before he was a thief, he wouldn’t die until Key told him to.  

 

“Hey, what are you two whispering about?” said one of the sailors. He reached forward, hand going toward Key. Jonghyun shifted so it pushed at his shoulder instead making him fall forward and onto the captain. The split second of contact gave Key enough time to whisper words Jonghyun almost didn’t hear.

 

“There’s a plan.”

 

He sat back, farther from Key now and followed Minho’s gaze as he looked up at the railing of the ship. Jonghyun thought he saw a glimpse of golden hair peaking above the railing, but it was gone as soon as he blinked replaced by a brown mop. He squinted and barely made out the baby smooth face of the merman who’d grabbed him in the water. He felt his ankle sting and frowned. Were they going to do something about his wounds? He didn’t want to get amputated because of a fish.

 

They were pulled up onto the ship and tripped trying to get out with the sailors pushing them. They were paused in front of the sun kissed prince, Taemin standing to his right and the merman to his left clothe in only a white shirt. Jonghyun would have taken a moment to appreciate all his pale legged beauty, but he had a grudge against the fish boy and those legs really couldn’t compare to Key’s. He looked away. He looked at Taemin only to see the wizard prince staring straight into Minho’s face. Jonghyun grimaced, a suspicion rising in his chest.

 

“You,” the sun kissed prince said and pointed at Key. “You are the captain, correct?”

 

Key grinned and made a bowing motion. “Correct. I am Captain Key. How unfortunate it is to meet you today, crowned prince of Jeju. I was only a few days away from returning your brother to you, too.”

 

The prince scoffed. “Like you had any intention of returning him.”

 

Key shrugged. “Ask him yourself. It’s not like I did anything terrible to him. I think I treated him quiet well under the circumstances.”

 

The prince glared at them. “I don’t have time to hear your story. You can tell it to my father in court. Suho, lock them up below and keep food to a minimal.” The sun kissed prince turned, an arm wrapping around Taemin’s shoulder and the merman following after them. Taemin’s eyes looked back still meeting Minho’s and Jonghyun felt his stomach drop even more. He felt Key brush his arm against his as they were jostled down below.


	16. “To gain something, you must loose something of the same value.”

**Chapter 16**

 

**“To gain something, you must loose something of the same value.”**

 

Taemin followed his younger brother back to his cabin. At some point his view of the captures pirates was disturbed by the body of the merman creature walking behind them. He looked forward and moved closer to his brother’s side. The arm wrapped firmly around his shoulder felt warm and comforting, but sinister. It wasn’t the same arm he’d felt for the past month, nor was it the same feeling he remembered Kai giving off. Once inside, Taemin pulled away and sat on the bed.

 

Kai pulled up a chair and sat in front of his brother. He reached his hands out and took Taemin’s smaller ones in them. The crowned prince traced the lines of Taemin’s hands slowly with his thumbs and stopped on his wrists. 

 

“You have bruises.”

 

The wizard prince looked up, first at his brother then at the merman who had meandered into a corner of the captain and was now sitting observing them. He slipped his hands from Kai’s and examined the bruises around his wrists. They were faint, mostly his own fault. After the spy incident, Taemin had lost some of the first mate’s trust he’d build up the night before and Minho  started tying his wrists up again. Taemin hadn’t really minded. Even if he fought at first, Minho’s lips cursing against his pulled him back into the seduction of the words “I believe you.” The ties had never been very tight, but it was the thrashing he did in pleasure and not protests that made the new marks. It wasn’t something Taemin was proud to admit, it confused him to no end.

 

“I was tied up. What else would you expect?”

 

Kai took his wrists in his hands again. “Did they have to make them so tight?”

 

“They were loose, I just didn’t work well with them on.”

 

Kai let his wrists go and reached a hand up to stroke Taemin’s gold hair. “Of course you didn’t. Can you tell me what happened?”

 

Taemin pulled away from the touch and licked his lips. He thought over what to tell his brother. Nothing _had_   really happened that concerned his brother. The rape was something he wished to keep to his self; he wasn’t a woman where chastity would matter. And he couldn’t much say he was reaped when the one who had done it was half doing it to protect him, someone who almost died and killed someone to protect him.

 

“Nothing, I was just a captive,” Taemin said.

 

“They didn’t ask for ransom money. Taemin, they will not hurt you now, you’re here with me and we’re going home. Please, tell me what happened so we can give them a fair punishment.” Kai’s dark eyes stared at Taemin. They were serious and Taemin’s chest tightened a bit knowing his brother had worried, but he couldn’t help feeling jaded by the whole thing.

 

Taemin glanced over at the merman. His eyes were closed, breathing closer as if sleeping. “They were looking for a treasure. It was cursed and they needed a wizard to break the curse. I guess they thought a wizard prince would be strong, but I couldn’t do it, so they were going to ship me off to Japan.”

 

“What about the massacre on the Mermaid Sea?”

 

Taemin shrugged. “They were impatient to get to the treasure. Going straight through was faster.”

 

Kai sat back in his chair looking thoughtful. “That doesn’t seem like something feared pirates would do so simply.”

 

“Fearsome doesn’t make them smart. Among pirates, they just have to be good with swords and women,” Taemin said.

 

A grin tugged at Kai’s lips and he chuckled. “You’ve learned to speak truthfully, big brother.”

 

They were lies, all of it was a lie. They were done, Taemin wanted to be done. He reached up and touched the necklace resting around his neck.

 

 “What’s that?” Kai asked reaching out to touch the necklace.

 

Taemin pulled back. “It’s mine. They took it and  my staff from me. I could only get one back.”

 

“Where’d you get it?”

 

“Mother,” Taemin said and added quickly, “my mother.”

 

A hurt look crossed Kai’s face. “You never told me about this.”

 

“You never told me when you started messing around with women, or about seeing all those burnt bodies,” Taemin shot back.

 

Kai stood. “We’re adults, we don’t have to share everything now.”

 

Taemin nodded then gestured toward the merman. “Will you share why he’s here?”

 

“Luhan? He agreed to help us find you. Those pirates killed many of his sisters.”

 

“Will we take him back to the Mermaid Sea?”

 

 “No, he’s to be my consort.”

 

Taemin’s eyes widened. “A male consort, you can’t!”

 

“I can if I marry. He’s already agreed to it.”

 

The wizard prince frowned. A male consort. Would that really be allowed?

 

“Kai, we’re both adults.”

 

“Yes,” Kai said looking at his elder brother with furrowed brows.

 

“I know very well no one wishes for me to have sons. Allow me a consort as well.”

 

Kai’s eyes widened. “Who would you have me give to you? A consort’s son still had legitimacy to the throne.”

 

Taemin looked to the door of the cabin then at his brother. “You’re going to take over for father. Put in a good word for me. I want the tall pirate under my control.”

 

“That’s ridiculous!” Kai exclaimed. “At the least, all three of those pirates will be sentenced to life in the dungeon cells. Why would you want one of them as your slave?”

 

Taemin shook his head. “Don’t ask me why, little brother. This is something you won’t be able to understand about what happened. This is my personal punishment for someone who’s wronged me. It was his hands that carried me out of the castle, it was his hands…his hands…Consider it his plea bargain, and if he doesn’t agree, then I’ll tell you, but you won’t understand.”

 

Kai’s fists clenched at his sides. He was silent, gritting his teeth at Taemin. The wizard prince stared back. He needed to stay strong, he felt stronger than when he’d left. He hoped Kai saw that.

 

The crowned prince sighed. “I’ll think it over. I may be able to get one of them off the hook for it, but you must make sure it’s that one you want. Stay here and rest, I must over look some things.”

 

Taemin nodded and watched at Kai left. He turned back only to be met with doe brown eyes and a grin that showed sharp teeth.

 

“You’re a liar, golden prince. I can smell it all over you,” the merman said, kneeling at the edge of Taemin’s bed.

 

Taemin scooted back. The merman placed his head on the mattress and drew patterns on it.

 

“You fear me, I can smell it, and I could smell the emotions swirling around you when you talked to that tall pirate.”

 

“Are you going to tell Kai?” Taemin said, heart beating erratically.

 

The merman pulled himself onto the bed and lay across the edge, eyes closing. “I’ve taken my revenge on a few of those pirate’s comrades. I didn’t much like the taste of blood on my fingers. Lie as much as you want. I’m not human. The only thing I ask is you stay afraid of me and for your brother to make sure I learn a lot about both human pleasure and human knowledge.”

 

Taemin curled himself up in the corner away from the merman. “Why are you on the bed?”

 

“This is where I’ve been sleeping. I won’t hurt you and I don’t have any desire for you. We’ll be brothers, so lie down and rest, golden prince.”

 

Taemin watched as the merman’s breath evened out. He waited until it was asleep before stretching himself against the wall edge of the bed to rest. 

 

**@};----------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Jonghyun’s stomach was growling by the time they had reached Jeju, not that Jonghyun wasn’t use to being fed very little, but he had gotten use to snacking on Key’s ship and the very little he got from the navy men he halved with Key. He figured, as captain, Key needed more strength than him. Also, Key tended to leave most of his meals untouched which led to Jonghyun assuming they were poisoned.

 

They didn’t get to see much of Jeju when they landed. The sailors handed them off to the soldiers as soon as they stepped off the ship. The soldiers then put bags over their heads and pushed them into a covered wagon. Jonghyun was worried at first that they might try to separate them and make them turn on each other. Only the hell of Key’s boot digging into his foot the whole trip to the castle assured him in the most painful way. The next thing Jonghyun saw after Jeju’s shore was the dimly lit cells of the Jeju Castle dungeons.

 

The soldiers prodded at Jonghyun’s back as they made their way down the winding staircase that walked the walls of the three floors of cells. He growled softly angry he had decided to take up the end of the length of chain he shared with Minho  and Key, but there had been a concession to keep Key in the middle and Jonghyun hadn’t know what to do if he was in the front. It was pretty hard being it the back, though. They stopped at one of the arched halls on the middle floor where the cells where. The other pirates where taken farther down. A large cell was opened for them and the pushed Jonghyun in order to usher the line of three inside. Jonghyun frowned thinking they could have pushed anyone really and they would have all had to follow with how they were chained together. It was just because he was the shortest. He wished he wasn’t wearing a shirt, then maybe they wouldn’t think he was the weakest just because he wasn’t tall or the captain (even if he somewhat technically was).

 

Minho  moved to the far back, tugging them all with him and Jonghyun stumbled after almost falling face first onto the cement and soiled ground. He kept his eyes down to make sure he didn’t. They stopped on Key’s feet, the pirate captain lifting his feet over and over again, making a sticky sound. Jonghyun looked up to see the most disgusted face Key had ever made. Those dark eyes met Jonghyun’s first then went to the guards that had now been posted by their cell.

 

“Can’t you at least keep your cells clean? This is despicable! Even my pirate ship is kept in a better place than this,” Key said.

 

One of the guards chuckled. “Shut up, _Captain_ , your hands are dirtier than this prison cell by the sound of it.”

 

Jonghyun shivered seeing Key smirk. “At least I can kill someone. I bet you’ve never drawn blood with those swords you’re carrying around.”

 

The guard laughed. “Of course not, these cells are sturdy buggars. I just have to stand here and make sure you bunch of criminals keep quiet.”

 

“Shut up,” the other guard warned his companion. “You can’t tell him that kind of stuff. What if he escapes?”

 

Key’s smirk grew into a grin. “Yes, what if I escaped? Doesn’t it scare you, being down here with people who will just as easily slide a sword through your stomach as would swat away an annoying fly? What if I escaped? I wouldn’t go for you stomach, I’d go for your throat. I’d slink up to where you’re standing right now, reached out for your sword with these fingers.” Key lifted his hand and wiggled his fine long digits. The guards looked at him, scruffy faces hard. “Aren’t they pretty? They’re as gentle as a fisherman’s daughter. I could slide your sword from your scabbard just as easily as she could slide you into herself and you’d be dead before you could come.”

 

Jonghyun found amusement in the way one of the pirate’s hands went to his sword while the other went to his crotch. Whether in a way to cover up what the image did to him or to protect himself, Jonghyun didn’t know, but he wished he could tease the guards. The smarter guard moved his hand from the hilt of his sword to his comrade’s shoulder.

 

“Let’s go check the other cells and leave them be.”

 

When the guard’s foot steps were just quiet echoes at the end of the hall, Key suddenly squatted down. Nothing other than the bottom of his shoes touched the cell and Jonghyun thought he looked uncomfortable, but squatted as well. Minho  turned from where he had been looking out the small window at the back end of the cell and squatted as well.

 

“What did you see?” Key asked.

 

“Nothing of the ship yet, but I saw a black bird,” Minho  said. “I think it was one of ours.”

 

Key grinned. “Good. Did it go to our pirate?”

 

“It looked like it was headed that way.”

 

Key let out a sigh. “I’m glad they build these cells into the mountain. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to see anything.”

 

Jonghyun looked between them confused. “What’s going on?”

 

Key rolled his eyes at Jonghyun. “I’m not an idiot. I knew there’s a high probability of getting caught, so I left some pirates on this island to use if I was caught. The ship should be here in a day or two. We have to be able to stay alive for three, but that might be hard because of _you_.”

 

Jonghyun almost whimpered at the glare Key shot at him. He held his hands out defensively. “What did I do?”

 

“You killed someone.”

 

“I was trying to protect you and I didn’t mean to.” Jonghyun moved his hands to his ankle and rolled up his pant leg so Key coulds see the scratches across the skin there. “That mermaid got me, not too bad, but it hurt then and I slipped.”

 

The captain sighed. He lifted a hand to run his finger through his black hair. “I’m not angry with you, dog, it just makes it more difficult.”

 

Jonghyun peeked over at the first mate. He had stood back up to look out the window that would have been too high for Key or him to look out of. He scooted closer to Key and lowered his voice. “What can I do to make it up to you?”

 

Key’s voice was softer as he responded. “My legs are falling asleep and I’m tired. I don’t want to get dirty so let me sit on you.”

 

Jonghyun looked around. The floor really was too gross, but one look at Key, lashes fluttering as if daring to close, and Key sat down ignoring the slight squish. He pulled Key into his lap and the captain curled up there. The first mate peeked at them, lips tightened. Jonghyun waited for him to say something, but he only sighed and went back to the window. Chancing it, Jonghyun lifted a hand to Key’s hair, running his fingers through. Key didn’t protest, already asleep.

 

**@};-------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Taemin soaked up the feeling of being home. He sprawled out on his large bed and stared up at the canopy of light blue and white above him. This was what he was use to, falling asleep in the comfort of plush pillows and fragrant blankets, not in the arms of a sweaty pirate on a ship that rocked too hard. Somehow, it didn’t feel right, though. The wizard prince knew he couldn’t survive being a pirate. He didn’t have the sword skill needed, or the heart to kill someone. Taemin had always thought he was raised as a princess instead of a prince, but princesses were liked much more than this. He should have been a girl; he could have been the splitting image of his mother, then, and not a slightly effeminate version of her and the king. But, what if this all had still happened. Minho  did only like boys, he wouldn’t have made the same offer had Taemin been a princess.

 

The prince curled up onto one side and sighed. He was destined to have that experience it seemed. Taemin thought the overwhelming feeling of being unaccepted was worth the horror that would have befallen him had he been a girl on that ship. His had moved to his stomach, round and bloated from the full meal he had been greeted with upon his arrival. He would have definitely been carrying a child of sin right now had he the ability.

 

Taemin’s eye lashes fluttered and he took a deep breath. Kai had visited not too long ago with the merman still trailing after him as if attached by a leash. He informed Taemin that their father had agreed to give him one wish for his troubles. Taemin had already told his younger brother exactly what his wish was, and he could tell Kai understood with the disapproving look in his eyes as he left. It was night now, Taemin would not make someone a slave against their will.

 

The wizard prince rolled off his bed and wrapped a cloak of deep red around his body. He nestled the golden tie above the medallion that made up the pendant of the necklace the pirate captain had given him and set off toward the dungeons. Taemin had not traveled to the lower levels of the castle often since he was very young and had that sense of adventure he had since handed over to Kai. They would both go together, like the moon and the sun, traveling from one end of the servant quarters to the other, running under the long full skirts of the  maids away from the wooden spoon wielding cooks as they stole treats intended for Kai’s mother, the queen, plump by that time. Taemin hurried along those same corridors, no longer trying to hide. He was a prince after all, what business he had was his own.

 

“I want to see the faces of the pirate leaders behind bars,” Taemin said as he approached the guards on the second level of the prison.

 

They bowed, one with hesitation and the other with sympathy. Taemin paid no head and quickly moved on. It was a large cell, but Taemin had seen lesser men put into better cages. He carefully wrapped his hand around one of the dusty bars and peered in. They were curled up together, the captain and thief holding each other and the first mate looking up at the small window where the moonlight reflected off the crashing waves outside shone over them.

 

“Minho.”

 

“Taemin?” The first mate’s head snapped around. He scurried up to stand, eyes catching the moonlight as he stared at Taemin.

 

Taemin pushed his other hand through the bars and made a gesture toward the first mate. “Minho, come talk to me for a moment.”

 

Minho  lifted his arms to show the chains around them and around his feet. Taemin frowned, but made the gesture again. The first mate looked down at the sleeping forms melded together in a ball on the floor then back at Taemin.

 

“Don’t snitch on me since you’re the one who called me toward you,” Minho  said then shook his wrists, the chains falling free. He reached down and undid the ones on his legs as well before taking long strides toward Taemin.

 

The wizard prince licked his lips, fear making his heart beat faster with every step the first mate took. He nodded. One of Minho’s larger hands slowly slid into his outstretched hand and he held it tight. His other hand went above Taemin’s on the bar of the cell and he pressed himself close. Taemin could feel his breath against his forehead and closed his eyes.

 

“You’ve done horrible things to me,” Taemin whispered, the sound like the squeak of the mice that infested the cells.

 

“I have, will I be punished for them?”

 

Taemin pressed closer to the bars almost feeling the first mate’s body heat. He looked up meeting Minho’s large eyes. He parted his lips to speak. “I will punish you for them.”

 

“And what about the good things I did for you?”

 

Taemin slipped his hand away from Minho’s and placed it on the first mate’s chest right above his heart. He lifted himself and moved his lips closer to Minho’s ear. “I will give you a choice in return, but neither of them will be something you like. Even if the others escape, I’ll make sure you don’t. You’ll be my slave, Minho. Whether you agree to this or not depends on how I’ll treat you.”

 

A flash of hatred crossed the first mate’s eyes. Taemin pushed himself up higher, hand moving to hold onto the back of Minho’s neck. “I know you hate royals, but I also know you love my body.”

 

Minho’s hand shot out through the cage and grabbed Taemin’s waist. He gasped and arched back before glaring at the first mate.

 

“You’ve become a little siren,” Minho  growled.

 

A joyful smile stretched across Taemin’s lips. Those words made him feel oddly happy, powerful. “Yes, yes I have. What’s your choice?”

 

The first mate’s eyes flickered toward the captain. “I can’t betray him.”

 

Taemin frowned. He was about to reply when a soft voice beat him to it.

 

“You already have, Choi Minho,” the captain said, eyes still closed as he rested against the chest of the snoring thief. “My dear prince just played his last part in this plan.”

 

Taemin stared at Key surprised. “You knew I’d do this?”

 

The captain yawned. “You’re both still alive.”

 

Taemin’s heart tightened remembering the dagger Key had given him. “You truly are a pirate to be feared.”

 

Key laughed. “You just figured that out?”

 

Taemin turned back to Minho. “Your choice?”

 

“Agreeing is the only way to get back at you for making me betray my home for the last six years.”

 

“I didn’t make you betray anything, but I’ll give you the taste of the perks of your choice.” Taemin leaned up the rest of the way, the hand on the back of Minho’s neck pulling him down so their faces met between the cell bars.  The first mate’s grip on his waist tightened the moment their lips met and Taemin groaned into the kiss. He pulled away when he felt surges of heat melting his heart.

 

“Choi Minho, I own this name now.” Taemin quickly turned and started back, but was topped by the captain’s voice again, soft, calling to him from the other end of the cage. Taemin moved toward him and kneeled on the ground.

 

“What do you want, pirate captain?” Taemin asked.

 

“One of these days we might meet again, my dear prince. I hope by then my first mate won’t hate royalty. I don’t.”

 

 “He’s not your first mate anymore.”

 

Key grinned at him. “You’re right, he’s your lover now.”

 

Taemin stood back up and clicked away flustered making him hot tempered.

 

“Oh, one more thing before you go, prince,” Key yelled after him. “That necklace, it was your mother’s.”

 

The wizard prince’s hand stayed clamped around the medallion.

 


	17. “The truth is not one thing given, but, like a game, levels must be acquired through time.”

**Chapter 17**

 

**“The truth is not one thing given, but, like a game, levels must be acquired through time.”**

 

They were dragged out of their cell a day and a half later. Only a loaf of bread a three bowls of water had been given to them in that time and Jonghyun had had to endure the embarrassment of relieving himself in the corner with Key staring at him in disgust. The pirate captain had refused to sit back in his lap at first, but eventually did finding even the slight sour smell Jonghyun was starting to get from having to actually come in contact with the dirty cell much better than sitting on the cell floor. Key’s hand had come in contact with the floor during the dragging and Jonghyun was concerned as he watched Key staring at his shackled hands, face scrunched up. Several times he’d attempted to wipe his hand on one of the guards or Minho  leading in front only to get it slapped away. Jonghyun was surprised the captain didn’t nag the guards. He stayed relatively quiet, but Jonghyun could see him bristle more and more with each jibe. Had the time in the dirty cell finally got to him like a well planned torture chamber, or was he being clever on a basis everyone could understand and not speaking up right before the trial.

 

Jonghyun assumed that’s where they were headed anyways, to be trialed. The guards paused to unshackle their feet once they were outside of the dungeon area. The thief shuffled, his injured ankle feeling much better without the added weight before he groaned when Key spread his legs out, heel stabbing into Jonghyun’s foot. Key looked behind him and grinned, moving his heel off and tapping it on the ground contemplating it. Jonghyun just glared at the shoe, lifting his foot off the ground a bit to shake it until the pain had gone away. He wondered how much more until he’d have to amputate his foot and replace it with a wooden peg.

 

The guards prodded his side and Jonghyun shuffled forward into the captain. He frowned and pushed Minho  in front of him to keep going. They walked up a tunnel of sweaty bricks. There was a draft traveling from a hallway behind them where the sea breeze could slip into. Jonghyun shivered at it and calculated in his head how many days into the season it was. There was still a while before winter, but a storm wasn’t impossible.

 

Loud voices started to filter into the hall and Jonghyun could see bright orange light up ahead. The guards stopped them before a grate in an archway. Jonghyun tried to peer out of it and caught a glimpse of tall bleachers before he was pushed down from his tip toeing by a harsh hand. He frowned at it and frowned even more seeing the other pirates that had lived and been caught coming up behind them. Trumpets suddenly blared.

 

“My dear citizens and judges,” called a booming voice, “I welcome you to the trial of the bandits that kidnapped our prince only a month ago. How blessed we are to get him back to soon, but even more blessed would we have been had he never been taken in the first place. All of this is thanks to his younger brother and crowned prince, my son, Prince Kai.”

 

Jonghyun could picture the built king in his glorified robes gesturing to the audience of people there to watch. He could also picture Prince Kai, standing up and waving his golden hand while Taemin sat beside him.

 

“Head judge, let’s begin the prosecution,” the king said.

 

Suddenly, the grate was lifted and the pirates were tugged out into the awaiting room. It was a large room, much like a throne room. Four rows of high bleachers circled it and on the wall they walked out of was a fifth row where the royal family sat just above the judges. Everyone else were speculators. Jonghyun frowned seeing an ominous looking man in black off to the side. The room was indoors, Jonghyun didn’t think beheadings would happen indoors.

 

The guards led them to a group of benches set in the middle of the room and pushed them down to sit. Jonghyun scooted away from the pirate he was next to, thigh touching Key’s. The captain glanced his way, but didn’t protest. Jonghyun felt lightened and relaxed his leg against Key’s then looked around. That lightening feeling grew heavy again. Having the bleachers so high up and these benches on the floor were intimidating. Jonghyun truly felt like taking advantage of his average height, almost wishing to be smaller and scurry away like mice. He didn’t like big rooms of important people.

 

A man at the very front of the bleachers of judges straight down from where the king stood (a man with elaborate robes just as Jonghyun had guessed with a fat woman to his right and the two princes on his left) stood and rolled out a long scroll of parchment.

 

“My dear judges gathered today, we are here to give prosecution to these accused men. They are pirates of the ship _Locket_ , a fairly notorious group of men. Captain Key Kibum, first mate Choi Minho, a third unnamed, and various members of their crew are presented here.”

 

The judges nodded and Jonghyun whispered the captain’s full first name over and over to himself until Key nudged his thigh roughly.

 

“We have all heard the charges against them and the witnesses, let’s start the prosecution with the three heads. The unnamed, please come forward,” the head judge said first.

 

A guard moved to Jonghyun and unshackled his hands from the chain that connect him to Key, but his hands still remained together. The guard tugged him until he stood in front of a pedestal and he climbed onto it. The head judge’s face was ugly, Jonghyun thought as he looked up into it.

 

“Your name,” the judge asked.

 

“Jonghyun,” Jonghyun answered.

 

“Do you  have a registered last name?”

 

“Not anymore,” Jonghyun said.

 

“And what is your occupation?” the judge asked.

 

Jonghyun grinned. “I’m a thief.”

 

The other judges murmured to themselves and the head cleared his throat.

 

“You shouldn’t joke in this situation. We’re starting with you first because you have the most charges. You killed one of our men. Do you deny this?”

 

Jonghyun shook his head. “No, but it was an accident. I didn’t mean to kill him. I…apologize?’

 

“It’s too late for apologies. Murder is usually paid for by beheading. You’ll be beheaded after the trial since you admit to it.”

 

Jonghyun frowned and looked behind him. He couldn’t see Key’s face, the captain was look down, eyes covered by the shadow of his bangs. Jonghyun sighed.

 

“Wait, you don’t want to behead me.”

 

“You’re a thief without a family name. We have all the reason to.”

 

“I lied about the family name. It’s Kim. Kim Jonghyun.”

 

The judges began to whisper again. “There’s many with that last name. I’ll give you one line more before we agree upon your sentencing.”

 

Jonghyun chewed his bottom lip. “My mother is Junghee, a cousin of the princess of the main land and my father is a judge like you of the same court. I’m their runaway son.”

 

“You can’t simply claim to be someone,” the judge said.

 

Jonghyun raised a brow and looked up at them. “I’m the splitting image of my mother.”

 

The queen, plump and almost haggard looking stood. “He does look like her. I’ve seen Lady Junghee when she was younger.”

 

The king reached up and pulled his wife back down before standing himself. “I’ve heard the rumor. We can not prosecute someone claiming to be that boy until we know for sure. It’s been five years.”

 

“Six years,” Jonghyun corrected and turned then jumped off his pedestal.

 

 

**@};--------------------------------------------;{@**

 

They were on recess. Jonghyun’s words caused a stir among the judged making it almost impossible to come to an agreement on how they would proceed. Jonghyun was chained back to Key and Minho  and they were taken to a waiting cell underneath the bleachers the judges had been sitting. The thief sat on the single bench in the room then felt himself being tugged up. He stumbled forward catching himself on Key’s leg. Key kicked his leg away and glared at Jonghyun. For a moment, Jonghyun was lost then he sighed.

 

“You’re angry with me aren’t you?”

 

Key bared his teeth. “I hope they cut off your head.”

 

Jonghyun frowned and reached his bound hands up to Key’s shoulder. “Listen to me at least, I can explain.”

 

The pirate captain pulled away. “I don’t want to listen to someone who’s less than a dog. The son of a queen’s cousin, I would have never imagined.”

 

Jonghyun peeked over at the first mate in a desperate plea for help. Minho  quickly turned his head away. Jonghyun’s shoulder slumped. “Yeah, that’s who I was. I didn’t want anyone to know, but Key, you’re loosing Minho. I heard you two talking last night.”

 

It had been close to morning when Jonghyun had stirred with the intention of using the bathroom only to hear the first mate and captain talking. He didn’t hear much, his body quickly deciding Key’s warm bottom on his lap was worth more than relieving himself so he ended up falling right back to sleep. Jonghyun did hear that Minho  was to be left behind. Someone needed punishment. Jonghyun didn’t catch it, but it seemed Minho  could somehow get around death as his. Minho  meant a lot to Key, Jonghyun knew that. He’d learned a lot about Key in the short time he’d been on the ship. Minho  wasn’t just Key’s first mate, for the longest time, he was the only one Key could truly trust, his only friend. Jonghyun wasn’t a friend, he was something much more loyal, but he felt like a guard dog that had bitten his master in order to keep him safe. He didn’t want Key to be alone.

 

“Please let me explain,” Jonghyun said softly. “I want you to trust me.”

 

“You lied to me,” Key said.

 

“I never lied. A dog could have good pedigree, but what matters is who it thinks as its master. I love you, so please Key.”

 

Jonghyun saw the captain flinch at the words before he suddenly sat, tugging Jonghyun down with him. Minho  reluctantly followed still not looking at Jonghyun.

 

“I’m listening, make it quick and it better not be stupid or I’ll make you stay here and take the blame.”

 

Jonghyun chuckled nervously. He folded his hands in his lap and thought on where to begin.

 

Jonghyun had experience young as most aristocrats did. His nightmares were still plagued by his nursemaid’s red sticky lips around his  member after he’d slapped her in a fit of pre-adolescent independence. It was right up there with the words his father had thrown at him right before he left. Afterwards, he had made friends with perhaps not the best of people. They were kitchen boys scattered amongst a few young warriors and older aristocracy. They ran around late at night getting into trouble in the city, stealing, drinking, vandalizing. Everything about that sort of life exhilarated Jonghyun and he knew he wasn’t born to live an honorable life, but there was one thing he did honor. Love.

 

Certainly it was an odd thing for someone like him, with likes as he did. There were parties, back room parties with warriors freshly given a status to be proud of and friends of Jonghyun’s father. Jonghyun and his group went and felt pleasures Jonghyun never could with a woman. The only women Jonghyun felt for were his mother and sister, so precious to him, and if he thought hard enough about it, perhaps their faces had replaced the face of his nursemaid and the other girls he had tried. They were all someone’s mother, sister. Jonghyun rarely saw his father, but he was a strong man and Jonghyun liked that strength that confidence men had.

 

  His first full experience with a man was at one of those parties, his body shaking from the force behind him given by one of the warriors. They said things, degrading things, but Jonghyun paid no head to them. They weren’t things that mattered to him. Because he was young, Jonghyun had to fight his way into a different position. He found the chase, the seduction that came with homosexuality exciting and he got cocky the moment he had succeeded in overcoming a man much older than him. That was his mistake, but also the key that let him free.

 

Jonghyun’s father found out about his group of friends and demanded he stopped hanging around them. Of course Jonghyun refused. He refused even his beautiful mother who came to him with eager please to find a woman to love. To find love. He promised her he would find love, but it could never be with a woman. His sister stood in the doorway as he made his claim he would not use someone’s sister when he knew he could never love her.

 

“You’re disgusting and a disgrace. You’re not my son, you’re a demon’s child. Your mother was a slut who slept with a demon to produce you. I have no son.”

 

It wasn’t the words his father said to Jonghyun, but what he said about his mother who he had seen aching after his father for so many years, looking out the window countless times during the day whether his father be away on normal work or month long wishes. She heaved a sob at her husband’s words and Jonghyun agreed. He could not be this man’s son, a man who would call a woman who loved him so much a slut. Jonghyun left and became a thief.

 

“It sounds stupid,” Key said after Jonghyun had relayed to him the story.

 

Jonghyun chuckled. “That’s not all of it. I only said I’d fine love to make my mother happy, but after a couple years as a thief, well, it got lonely and I really was looking for love.”

 

Key side eyed him. “Did you find it? I don’t believe is such a thing whether man and man or women and man.”

 

Jonghyun grinned at him. “I think you do, you just refuse to call it that, but yes, I think I did. I’ve already confessed to you, you’re the first one.”

 

Key scoffed. “I’m not a good person.”

 

“I don’t want a good person. I left because it was either being a criminal or being a criminal disguised as the protector of taxes or the law or some shit like that. I’m not going to fool people. I’m a bad person, so the only person I could love is another ‘bad’ person. I love you, Key, so I had to use who I was born as in order to stay with you.”

 

“We could still both die.”

 

The holding cell door opened and guards came inside to round them up. Jonghyun sighed and stood up.

 

“I don’t feel like dying today.”

 

 

**@};--------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

Once again they were seated on the bench in the middle of the room, all eyes on them. The bleachers other than the ones the judges were on were thinned out and Jonghyun guessed some people had gone ahead to wherever the killings would be taken placed. The head judge read out something similar to before and then gestured to the group of pirate crew that had been taken along with their trio.

 

The judge read off each of their names, most of them nicknames, then their charges and gave an accumulative judgement. “All of you have been sentenced to live in the prison cell with the possibility of freedom or death throughout at any given time during your sentence.”

 

The pirates turned to Key, begging that he do something, that he save them. Key didn’t look at them, only bowed his head as if in shame of having to loose his crew, but Jonghyun could see a grin tugging at his lips. Guards came to hold the pirates back and they were pushed back to their cells in the dungeons. It was quiet for a few more minutes before the judge called out a name.

 

“Kim Jonghyun.”

 

Jonghyun stood and looked up at the judges almost bored. “You took a really long recess you know.”

 

One of the other judges stood and pointed at Jonghyun. “You can’t talk to us like that, thief.”

 

Jonghyun raised his clasped hands. “I can. Even if I ran away, I still have parents with higher authority than you. Hurry up and sentence me.”

 

The head judged cleared his throat. “Because of the circumstance of your birth, it is not our place to sentence you. You will be moved to the main land kingdom you were born in and there will be a meeting between our two kingdoms and a decision made on how to punish you.”

 

“So, basically you can’t do it now, so on to the next person.” Jonghyun quickly sat back next to Key.

 

The captain nudged his leg and grinned at him. “You’re pretty brash.”

 

“Says the Master,” Jonghyun shot back with a grin of his own.”

 

“Choi Minho,” the head judge called.

 

The first mate was unchained and led up to the pedestal. Jonghyun bit back a frown seeing how he almost met the heads of the first row of judges standing there.

 

“It is said that you are this ship’s first mate. How old are you?”

 

“In my twenties,” Minho  answered.

 

“Still young, still able to work. The king is willing to offer you a plea bargain on Prince Taemin’s request.”

 

Taemin stood, fingers caressing the gold of the necklace Key had bestowed upon him. Jonghyun looked up surprised, but furrowed his brows seeing the look in Taemin’s eyes. The prince’s eyes were hard and they stared with a sort of fire down at  Minho.

 

“This pirate helped me on the ship. I want to express my gratitude and offer him a place here as my slave. He has already agreed to this.”

 

“Is this true?” the judge asked.

 

Minho  bowed. “It is.”

 

“Then let’s continue with our last prisoner. The Captain, Key Kibum.”

 

Minho  was led back and Key led to the pedestal by two guards. He stood straight as he faced the rows of judges.

 

“Do you have family that could help you out?” the judge asked.

 

“No,” Key said, his voice strong. “I am simply who I am, nothing more and nothing less. I am the captain of the ship _The Locket_. I kidnapped your prince, I admit it.”

 

“What was the purpose of you kidnapping the prince.”

 

“That is my business and I have no wish to relay it to the likes of you. I have nothing to postpone this sentencing and I have no wish to plead. Pink will sail on the horizon soon, let us finish this before the afternoon breaks and the rain starts. It won’t be much of a show if there’s a downpour.”

 

 The judges grumbled amongst themselves. The head judge frowned, but cleared his throat and continued.

 

“Alright, then we sentence you to death for piracy and masterminding the kidnapping a member of the royal court.”

 

Key bowed his head. “I do not accept this sentencing.”

 

Suddenly, there was an exploding noise outside. The whole castle shook and people started to run from the bleachers. Key jumped from the pedestal and the shackles from his hands fell off.

 

“It’s already started to pour.”

 


	18. “Bittersweet is the taste of revenge, change, and success.”

**Chapter 18**

 

**“Bittersweet is the taste of revenge, change, and success.”**

 

Taemin was startled out of his staring contest with the first mate by his brother’s hand clasping onto his wrist protectively. He looked down at it, a light gold contrasting with his pale skin now a shade closer to his brother’s after his time on the pirate ship. The second wracking of the castle jostled Taemin’s mind into the situation at hand. Kai stood and pulled Taemin up with him, running from the bleachers. The wizard prince followed after, eyes darting around. Their father stood bellowing orders waving his blunted decorative sword around as if conducting war. Taemin couldn’t see Kai’s mother. Most of the women had run already.

 

They ran into the back halls in which they had entered from earlier. Taemin resisted the tugging hand the moment he realized he was out of eyesight of his newly require slave. Kai turned back with urgent dark eyes.

 

“Brother, what’s wrong?”

 

Taemin shook his head and pulled his hand away. “I have to go.”

 

“Yes, you have to go to safety,” Kei said.

 

Taemin took a step back. “No, I have to go find my slave.”

 

Kai reached out and grabbed his wrist again. “You can’t, he’s still a pirate.”

 

“I know that,” Taemin said and glared. “Kai, let me go.”

 

“I won’t. You were kidnapped once because I left you alone, I won’t do it again.”

 

Minho. Even after agreeing to their terms, would he still try to run off with the other pirates? Taemin couldn’t allow that. Onew had said Minho  use to be in training to be a royal soldier, his father had been an ambassador of sorts from a western country. The first mate hated royals, and for the scarring he had left Taemin with, Taemin wanted to surround him with the things he hated.

 

_I believe you._

 

Taemin wanted to surround him with the things he couldn’t resist, too.

 

“I know you have a higher status than I, but I am still your elder brother. If you can consider yourself a man who can make his own decisions, than I am that a year more. _Trust_   me and let me go.” Taemin stared into his brother’s eyes, eyes that matched his own. Kai’s grip tightened.

 

“Why must you retrieve that man? I don’t understand your relationship to him.”

 

“You never will,” Taemin said, “it’d disgrace the whole kingdom.”

 

Kai’s grip slipped away and Taemin quickly took steps back then turned.

 

“Brother!”

 

Taemin paused hearing his brother’s call. He glanced back to see Kai reaching out for him. Had he reached out like that the day Taemin had been kidnapped, desperate like he use to when they were children? The strong smell of the sea met Taemin and he turned back. The merman walked past him, gate steady and slow.

 

“Brothers who would travel the world to find each other are much too close,” Luhan said. “I’ll take your place if you don’t mind.”

 

Taemin nodded slowly. The moment the merman had passed, Taemin hurried back to the courtroom.

 

They were still fighting their way out of the courtroom. The captain had his sword slashing threateningly at the guards, the thief scrambling about with his own. Taemin saw Minho  escape first down one of the corridors that marked the exit for the spectators on the bleachers. He hurried back to the hall he’d just come and went around to try and cut the first mate off. Taemin rounded a corner just as Minho  reached it. His breaths came out hard, legs burning with how fast he’d run to get there in time. He stared Minho  down with anger rising in his eyes.

 

“Where…are you going?” he asked.

 

Minho  met his eyes and he saw a flicker of guilt in them before their usual flames deflated. “I want to go home.”

 

“You don’t have a home,” Taemin said.

 

Minho’s body tensed. It must have hurt, Taemin’s words, but the prince could not bring himself to care. He hoped it hurt; Taemin hurt from the confusion Minho’s actions caused him.

 

“I dedicated myself to that ship for six years. How can I let a royal take me away from that?”

 

“You’ll feel lonely on that ship,” Taemin said. “I’ve seen the thief and your captain. You won’t feel comfortable there anymore, will you?”

 

 

Minho  lowered his head. “Then where am I to go? To you intend to leave me homeless.”

 

Taemin shook his head. “I’m not that cruel. You will hate it here, too, though I hope eventually you’ll come to accept it. Until then, your home can be the only thing here you love. My body will be your home, Choi Minho.”

 

The first mate made quick steps to Taemin. No one else was in the hall way. Everyone had escaped or gone a different way, and the pirates were probably still held up in the courtroom. Minho  grabbed the back of Taemin’s gold hair and tilted his head up. Taemin looked into the taller man’s eyes, use to moving as Minho  willed. He stared back feeling Minho’s breath against his face and lips. His eyes fluttered.

 

“I would have never taken Key’s offer to give you to me if I had known it was a trap. I can’t get away from you now.”

 

Taemin reached a hand up and gripped Minho’s hair in the same fashion. The first mate’s fingers fell loose from Taemin’s hair and the prince moved in, lips ghosting against Minho’s neck as he moved them up to his ear. “You are mine, Choi Minho; that name belongs to me and every time I say it you are inclined to obey me.” The click of heels echoed down the hall toward them. Taemin shivered and shut his eyes and let his lips move again. “Hold me and I will let you have one more act as a loyal pirate of the ship _Locket_ that sails with the red sails. Hold me and don’t let me see and in return, you won’t have to witness it either.”

 

Minho’s hands moved to Taemin’s waist then thighs. Taemin lifted his legs around the first mate’s hips and allowed himself to be carried down another hall away from the coming of clicking footsteps and away from prying eyes. The clicks paused and Taemin’s heart jumped as he felt Minho  pause with them. Other footsteps joined them and swords began to clash. Taemin felt Minho’s hand make a gesture and then he grabbed Taemin’s hair, lips attacking his neck again as their hips began to move together. Before they were overcome by the throws of passion, Taemin heard the soft whisper echoing down the hall, the clash of swords gone now.

 

“Goodbye, first mate, Minho.”

 

Taemin’s hand lifted to the gold of his collar and he barely felt the shake of an explosion close by as Minho  pushed into him, dust rolling past. 

 

**@};---------------------------------------;{@**

 

A hand, pale texture softer than a human’s should be, grasped Kai’s outstretched one. The crowned prince gasped, dark eyes moving away from the place where his brother had stood. His eyes met the doe brown of the merman’s and he felt something inside him move, a shift in his mind that made him let out a sigh of relief.

 

“They’re going to escape aren’t they?” Kai said, fingers closing around Luhan’s.

 

The merman tightened his hold and tugged for the prince to follow him. Through the chaos of rushing guards and screaming aristocracy, they walked slowly; Luhan guiding the prince’s every step. Kai glanced out the windows as they passed. He could see orange through the dark of rain that was now falling in heavy sheets across their kingdom and the ocean, a storm to cover the pirate’s retreat and the orange of flames their canons burned on the harbor of the castle. At least the citizens were safe this time. The rape and pillaging of that night wasn’t something the judged had bothered to charge the pirates with.

 

Rape.

 

Kai stopped for a moment. Had he not made a big deal of finding Taemin, no one would have bothered persecuting the pirates for the wizard prince, probably. There hadn’t even been charges for assault. He turned to Luhan. “Remind me to get my brother a new staff, one that matched that necklace.”

 

“A new stuff won’t make him feel any better,” the merman said.

 

Kai continued to watch outside as a group of riders headed after what looked to be the other two lead pirates. “Just remind me.”

 

The merman nodded and moved them through to the prince’s chambers, the halls much quieter on this side. The guards usually standing outside were gone, off trying to catch the escaped pirates.

 

“Why are we here?” Kai asked. He should be with the soldiers commanding a plan of attack before the pirate ship left the dock. But, Taemin was safe, or so he assumed not seeing his elder brother’s new slave racing off to the ship. Kai didn’t really have the motivation to help. The pirates were leaving with fewer than they came and Taemin…Taemin had the man that actually hurt him.

 

“They don’t need you right now,” Luhan said.

 

“I’m still the crowned prince. Of course they need me,” Kai argued without much fever.

 

The merman grinned. “You know it’s a loosing battle already. I can see it in your eyes.”

 

Kai moved to his bed and sat. “There’ just no reason to chase after them. Taemin isn’t with them and he was the only thing they really stole.”

 

Luhan walked across the room toward Kai. The merman stood in front of the prince, eyes flashing black before settling back into their false human innocent brown. Kai held up his hands and the merman kneeled down onto the bed and slipped into Kai’s lap. The prince lifted his hand farter and touched the soft roundness of the merman’s face, the pillows of his soft lips. He hadn’t touched the merman since that time on the ship when they made their promise.

 

“How old are you?” Kai asked.

 

“Such things don’t matter among mermaids, we age only slightly slower, but , if I heard correctly, I’m older than you. Does that please you, human prince?”

 

Kai stared up into those eyes glittering with mischievousness, as if the creature knew something he shouldn’t. The prince nodded. “Yes.”

 

Slowly, the merman leaned down, lips Kai had been caressing pressing against his own. Kai placed his hand on the merman’s neck, tracing the lines of muscle there and leaned back. Luhan’s tongue licked his lips and plunged in with untrained excitement. Kai’s hand moved to the other’s head, tugging on light fluffy hair. The merman moved off him, staring at Kai with lust painting his cheeks.

 

“What is this?”

 

The merman licked his lips. “Isn’t this what a consort is for, to stave off stress and relieve you?”

 

“Whoever said you were my consort?” Kai asked.

 

Luhan blinked, confusion adding to the tint of lust. “Am I not?”

 

Kai hummed. “I haven’t asked my father yet.” He knew not to ask too many things of the king at once. He’d asked him to pardon the pirate Taemin wanted. The king, though he did love Taemin, treated the older prince much the same as everyone else did, ignoring him. He had used his own wish so that Taemin might have one. How could he ask for another one so soon?

 

The merman frowned and rested his forehead against Kai’s. “I wanted to take your thoughts of him away.” Its hand moved up to Kai’s chest, tracing a circle over his heart. “I wanted to replace him in your mind and heart.”

 

Kai shivered at the touch. “You can’t. He’s my brother.”

 

“I don’t want to be your brother. I want to be the things he can’t be. I’ll be that for you, Human Prince, and you’ll teach me many many things.”

 

“You know too much,” Kai said and pecked the merman’s lips, “without being told anything.”

 

Luhan smiled. “We have to be perceptive if we want to seduce well, us mermaids.”

 

Kai moved his hands to hold Luhan’s face. He closer his eyes. “Yes, you can be that for me. I don’t want to think about my brother like that anymore. I’ll ask father soon, so please,  make those thoughts disappear so we can live on happily together.”

 

The merman pushed Kai down onto the bed, straddling his waist. It leaned down and whispered into his ear. “I’ll make them all go away.”

 

Kai didn’t think he would be able to handle the sort of hate his brother seemed to have for the first mate pirate, and he wondered which could have been worse for Taemin – being raped by that pirate or to be betrayed by his brother’s sinful feeling for him.  

 

The prince shivered and succumbed to the mermaid’s touch. Selfishly, he was glad Taemin _had_ been kidnapped. 

 

 

**@};------------------------------------------------;{@**

 

The rain pelted heavy down on Jonghyun as he weaved through the bodies running around on the ship. They had just lost the navy a few miles back, but now they were dangerously close to the harder spot of the storm.  A rope was tossed to him and Jonghyun barely caught it in his rain soaked hands. The rope burned against his hands, but he held tight to it as the other pirates held onto their own ropes until the sails were stable again, catching the fast blowing wind. Jonghyun walked over to the ship railing and tied the rope to it. He had barely started walking again when another rope was thrown at him. Jonghyun honestly didn’t know what they were doing, the other pirates as they ran about the wet ship; it had been a long time since he’d actively participated on a ship, long before he had run away from home.

 

A hand landed on Jonghyun’s shoulder. He turned his head and caught a glimpse of Key behind him. The hand trailed along his shoulder blades to the opposite shoulder and squeezed it. Key’s other hand moved up Jonghyun’s outstretched arm and grasped the rope, tugging it away from Jonghyun’s hold.

 

“What are you doing?” Jonghyun asked watching Key hand the rope off to another crew member.

 

The captain didn’t reply. He mad a gesture for Jonghyun to follow him. The rain had soaked through Key’s white blouse, soaked through all of their blouses, but Jonghyun only paid attention to how the translucent material move against the pale skin of Key’s back.

 

Key stopped for a moment and stared down a clear strip of the ship toward where Jeju Island lay miles away. He stared for long seconds and Jonghyun looked to see if perhaps the navy had caught up to them. The waves were rougher closer to the beach line. Jonghyun would call them idiots if they hadn’t turned back by now.

 

“Key, what are you looking at?”

 

The captain lifted up his arm and held his hand over his eyes like a visor. He was quiet for a few more seconds and Jonghyun was about to repeat himself when Key answered. “We really left him.”

 

Jonghyun turned to study Key. His posture was the usual overbearing one that Jonghyun had admired since he first stepped onto the ship. Even in the rain, in the rain especially, he looked dangerous, black hair flattened against his face and he could see every deep curve of the captain’s body. But, there was a slight slump to his shoulder that hadn’t been there before, like weight had suddenly been added to the air above Key. Jonghyun supposed there had been now that Minho  was gone.

 

“We could get him back,” Jonghyun offered.

 

“No, he wasn’t born to be a pirate,” Key said and turned on his heels.

 

Jonghyun quickly followed. “What do you mean?”

 

“He should have been a soldier. He can’t get revenge on the people who betrayed his father by being a pirate. Taemin can, he’ll realize that one day.”

 

“Why would Taemin get revenge for him?” Jonghyun asked trying to be careful not to slip on the wet wood of the ship.

 

Key paused and turned, a serious look in his dark eyes. “The same reason why you would kill for me.”

 

Jonghyun’s heart skipped a beat and he smiled embarrassed having Key talk so blatantly about his feelings.  “You’re saying the prince fell for your first mate?”  
  


Key started walking again, headed toward the captain’s cabin. “Perhaps, maybe not yet, but eventually.”

 

Jonghyun followed him inside. It was warm inside the cabin, a fire already burning bright even with the rain pouring down outside. Key moved over to it and held himself in front of it. He peeked over his shoulder and jerked his head to the fire for Jonghyun to join him. The thief moved over to the fireplace and stood beside the captain. He peeked over at him, the wet clothes like a second skin against his slim body.

 

“Key,” he said, “will you eventually—”

 

The captain lifted a hand and covered Jonghyun’s mouth. “I trust you, that’s enough.”

 

Jonghyun nodded and Key lowered his hand. “What are you going to do, though, about the first mate thing.”

Key moved his fingers and slipped the dripping wet bow from around his neck, hanging it over a bar on the fireplace. “I’ve gotten the treasure and the crew’s much smaller, so I’ll be fine for a while.”

 

“Will you make Onew your first mate?”

 

Key’s fingers moved to his shirt and he began unbuttoning it. “No, he’ll stay as the cook. My first mate must have sword skills that match my own.”

 

Jonghyun reached a hand out to help pull the wet material from Key’s body as he tried to tug it off. Key grabbed his wrist when the shirt hung only from one arm. He moved his other hand back and picked up a sword, putting it into Jonghyun’s hand the moved around him, stripping himself the rest of the way.

 

“What’s this?” Jonghyun asked holding the sword.

 

Key sat on the bed and peeled off one of his boots. “My dog needs to learn how to defend his master properly.”

 

Jonghyun ran his hand along the sword’s sheath. Key cleared his throat and Jonghyun saw him holding out his other booted foot to Jonghyun. The thief put the sword on the table and moved, holding Key’s foot against his chest, high to where the heel dug into his heart.

 

 Key scooted back against the bed once he was completely naked, dark eyes trained straight on Jonghyun’s. They swirled with those silver fish in a heavy storm that the one tossing about the ship couldn’t compare to, a storm Jonghyun had come to call lust.

 

“I don’t want to catch a cold from this rain, get undressed and make sure you I stay warm,” Key commanded.

 

“Yes, Master,” Jonghyun said and quickly removed his own wet clothes. He climbed into the bed beside Key and reached out, pulling Key into his lap and into a tight hug, hands running up and down his back. One of Key’s hands moved to Jonghyun’s back, feeling the sculpted muscle there.

 

“Are you alright?” Jonghyun asked, voice soft as it caressed Key’s ear.

 

The captain buried his face in Jonghyun’s shoulder and continued his petting like motions on Jonghyun’s back. “I want to get through this storm without turning back.”

 

Jonghyun placed his lips to Key’s ear. “Alright.” His hand moved in between their bodies and grabbed the captain’s member, stroking it.

 

Key gasped, the sound catching Jonghyun’s ear and making him shiver as a moan followed it.  The captain shifted on his lap, desperate both for more touches and to think of nothing but pleasure. Jonghyun kissed along his neck and helped situate the captain better on his lap. He took Key’s free hand and brought their fingers into his mouth, coating them, then guiding them behind Key. He helped the captain slip in one finger and then another until Key started moving them on his own as Jonghyun stroked him to keep the pain Key was still not use to from overriding the pleasure.

 

Jonghyun pressed the tip of his hard member at Key’s entrance and the captain slipped his fingers out, hovering over the pulsing flesh beneath him. Jonghyun could feel him shivering in anticipation, both scared and excited. He removed his hand from Key’s penis and held his hips guiding Key down. Key bit his bottom lip as he was penetrated, a small trickle of blood flowing down his chin front biting the pink flesh too hard. Jonghyun leaned in and licked the trail away before smashing his lips against Key’s.

 

They kissed, Jonghyun’s tongue eventually moving between the pink pillows and fighting the only fight Jonghyun thought he could ever win against the captain, but even that might change with how Key seemed to remember some of the movement’s Jonghyun had done to Key before. Slowly, Key moved on Jonghyun’s member. He broke the kiss with a loud gasp, head thrown back in pleasure. Jonghyun took advantage and placed kisses along Key’s neck. His hands on Key’s hips helped the captain bounce in his lap, the heat hotter around his member with the coolness of the rain still shimmering on both their skin mixing in with the sweat.

 

The captain came first,  nails digging in Jonghyun’s shoulders and back arched perfectly. Jonghyun’s hands had roamed to cupping Key’s bottom, spreading him so he could move deeper. He watched with fascination as he came, lips parted and eyes fluttering. He wasn’t loud, just a soft moan that allowed Jonghyun to appreciate the beauty of his face and neck, all that long white now covered with temporary love bites. And there was that chain, with the whistle and that Key.

 

Key fell back onto the bed, sprawled out and mussed like forgotten dolls Jonghyun often saw on the side of the streets back on that ungoverned island. The key landed close to Key’s heart and Jonghyun moved forward, still inside the captain, having moved with him, and nudged it away with his nose. He kissed Key’s heart, kissed over to the nipple closest to the beating Jonghyun could feel slowing, and sucked it once then looked up. The captain was staring at him with hazy eyes, but there was permission, or was it command, for him to continue, to use Key up until the storm was gone.

 

“I love you,” Jonghyun said softly.

 

Key’s lips moved, no words coming out, but Jonghyun could read what they said.

 

_I trust you._

 

Perhaps those words meant more than _I love you_ for Key.


End file.
